\ST U DIA IN /
THE LIBRARY
of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Toronto
THE
TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE:
VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH THE WHOLE SERIES OK
THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS
HY
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL,, AND PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW.
In vetere Testamento novum latet, et in novo vetus patet.
AUGUST. QU.*:ST. IN Ex. LXXIII.
VOLUME I.
FOURTH EDITION.
EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON & CO.
MDCCCLXIV.
IfcU
.
MURRAY AND GIBli, PKINTERS, EDINBURGH.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
THE issue of a Fourth Edition of the following Treatise, how
ever gratifying in one respect, is in another not unaccompanied
with a measure of regret. This arises from the number of
alterations which it has been found necessary to introduce into
it, and which will naturally prove of injurious consequence to
the Editions that have preceded. But, in truth, no alternative
was left me, if the work was to keep pace with the age, and
maintain relatively the place it occupied in the earlier stages of
its existence. When I first gave to the public the fruit of my
investigations upon the subject of Scripture Typology, not only
was there great diversity of opinion among theologians respecting
its fundamental principles, but many specific topics connected
with it were only beginning to receive the benefit of modern
research and independent inquiry. It is much otherwise now.
Even during the last ten years, since the Second Edition was
published, from which the Third did not materially differ,
productions, in very considerable number and variety, have
appeared, especially on the Continent, in which certain portions
of the field have been subjected to careful examination not
unfrequently have become the occasion of earnest controversy ;
and to have sent forth another Edition of my Treatise, without
regard being had to the fresh discussions that have taken place,
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
would only have been to leave it in a state of imperfect adapta
tion to the present times.
It is proper to mention, however, that the alterations in
question have respect to the literature of the subject and modes
of representation on particular parts, rather than to the views
and principles which have been exhibited in connection with its
general treatment. These have undergone no essential altera
tion ; indeed, with the exception of a few minor points, which
it is unnecessary to particularize, they remain much as they
were in the two last Editions. The progress of discussion, how
ever, with its varying tides of opinion, naturally called for an
extension of the historical review in the introductory chapter,
which has been coupled with a slight abridgment in some of
its earlier details, and in the later with a softening of the con
troversial tone, which seemed occasionally to possess too keen
an edge. The views, also, which in certain influential quarters
have of late been ventilated, respecting the relation of God s
work in creation to the destined incarnation of the Son, appeared
render the introduction of a new chapter (the fourth in Vol.
I.) almost indispensible, that the subject, with reference more
especially to its typological bearing, might receive the con
sideration that was due to it. These additions, with some other
changes growing out of them, and the employment of a some
what larger type for the Notes and Appendices, have together
brought an enlargement of about fifty pages to the First
Volume.
The alterations in the Second Volume, though more nume
rous, are not quite so extensive in respect to quantity of matter ;
and, partly consisting of more compressed statements, where such
were practicable, they have not added very materially to the
entire bulk of the Volume. They occur most frequently in the
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 5
portions which treat of the institutions and offerings of the
Mosaic economy, on which there has recently been much discus
sion ; and, in particular, the question respecting the relation of
the sin-offerings to transgressions of a moral kind (Ch. III., sec.
5), and the topics handled in one or two of the Appendices, are
here for the first time formally considered. On the whole,
I trust it will be found that the work has been, both in form
and substance, materially improved ; and having now again
(probably for the last time) traversed the field with some care,
and expressed what may be considered my matured views
on the topics embraced in it, I leave the fruit of my labours
to the candid consideration of others, and commend it anew
to the blessing of Him whose word it seeks to explain and
vindicate.
As regards the general plan pursued in the investigation of
the subject, I have only in substance to repeat what was said in
previous editions. It might, no doubt, have been practicable to
narrow at various points the field of discussion, and especially
to abridge the space devoted to the consideration of the law in
Volume Second (which some have thought disproportionate), if
the object had been simply to extract from the earlier dispensa
tions such portions as more peculiarly possess a typical charac
ter. But to have treated the typical in such an isolated manner
would have conduced little either to the elucidation of the sub
ject itself, or to the satisfaction of thoughtful inquirers. The
Typology of the Old Testament touches at every point on its
religion and worship. It is part of a complicated system of
truth and duty ; and it is impossible to attain to a correct dis
cernment and due appreciation of the several parts, without
contemplating them in the relation they bear both to each other
and to the whole. Hence the professed aim of the work is to
b PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
view the Typology of Scripture, not by itself, but in connection
with the entire series of the Divine dispensations.
It is possible some may think, that there is an occasional ex
treme on the other side, and that less has been said than might
justly have been expected on certain controversial topics, which
are ever rising afresh into notice, and which find, if not their
root, at least a considerable part of their support, in the view that
is taken of things pertaining to the institutions of former times.
The proper aim, however, of a work of this sort is hermeneutical
and expository, rather than controversial : it may, and indeed
ought, to lay the foundation for a legitimate use of Old Testa
ment materials, to the settlement of various important questions
belonging to Christian times ; but the actual application of the
materials to the diversified phases of polemical discussion,
belongs to other departments of theology. In certain cases the
application is so natural and obvious, that it could not fitly be
avoided ; but even in these it had been improper to go beyond
comparatively narrow limits ; and if I have not erred by excess,
I scarcely think judicious critics will consider me to have done
so by defect.
Still more limited is the relation in which the inquiry pur
sued in a work like the present stands to the much agitated
question respecting the historical verity of the earlier books of
Scripture, and in particular to the authenticity and truthfulness
of the books of Moses. Incidentally, not a few opportunities
have occurred of noticing, and to some extent repelling, the
objections that have been thrown out upon the subject. But,
as a rule, it was necessary to take for granted the historical
truthfulness of the sacred records ; for, apart from the reality
and Divine character of the transactions therein related, Typo
logy in the proper sense has no foundation to stand upon. The
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 7
service which investigations of this kind, when rightly pursued,
are fitted to render to the inspiration and authority of Scrip
ture, is of a less formal description, and relates to points of
agreement, of a somewhat veiled and hidden nature, between
one part of the Divine scheme and another. To obtain a clear
and comprehensive view of these one must stand, as it were,
within the sacred edifice of God s revelation, and survey with
an attentive eye its interior harmony and proportions. They
who do so will certainly find in the careful study of the Typo
logy of Scripture many valuable confirmations to their faith.
Evidences of the strictly supernatural character of the plan it
discloses will press themselves on their notice, such as alto
gether escape the observation of more superficial inquirers ; and
to them such evidences will be the more convincing and satis
factory, that it is only through patient research they come
to be perceived in their proper variety and fulness. If one
may have, as Dean Milman justly states (Hist, of Jews, i., p.
133, 3d ed.), "great faith in internal evidence, which rests on
broad and patent facts, on laws, for instance, which belong to
a peculiar age and state of society, and which there can be no
conceivable reason for imagining in later times, and during the
prevalence of other manners, and for ascribing them to an
ancient people," not less may such faith be called forth and
exercised by that evidence, which arises from the perception of
a profound harmony of principle and nicely adjusted relations,
preserved amid the endless diversities of form and method
naturally incident to a scheme of progressive development.
P. F.
GLASGOW, 2d November 1863.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST,
BOOK FIRST.
Page
Inquiry into the Principles of Typical Interpretation, with a view
chiefly to the determination of the real nature and design of
Types, and the extent to which they entered into God s earlier
dispensations.
CHAP. I. Historical and Critical Survey of the past and present
state of Theological opinion on the subject, . 17
II. The proper Nature and Province of Typology 1.
Scriptural use of the word Type comparison
of this with the Theological distinctive charac
teristics of a Typical relationship, viewed with
respect to the religious institutions of the Old
Testament, . . . . . G4
III. The proper Nature and Province of Typology
2. The historical characters and transactions of
the Old Testament viewed as exemplifying the
distinctive characters of a Typical relationship
Typical forms in nature necessity of the Typical
as a preparation for the fulness of times, 87
IV. The proper Nature and Province of Theology 3.
God s work in creation, how related to the in
carnation and kingdom of Christ, . 114
V. Prophetical Types, or the combination of Type with
Prophecy alleged double sense of Prophecy, . 137
VI. The Interpretation of particular Types specific
principles and directions, . . . 174
VII. The place due to the subject of Typology as a branch
of Theological study, and the advantages arising
from its proper cultivation, . . . 205
10 CONTENTS.
BOOK SECOND.
THE DISPENSATION OF PRIMEVAL AND PATRIARCHAL TIMES.
Page
Preliminary Remarks, . . . . . . 229
CHAP. I. The Divine truths embodied in the historical transac
tions on which the first symbolical Religion for
fallen man was based, .... 238
... II. The Tree of Life, . . . 250
... III. The Cherubim (and the Flaming Sword), . . 258
... IV. Sacrificial Worship, , . . . 286
... V. The Marriage Relation and the Sabbatical Institution, 303
... VI. Typical things in history during the progress of the
first Dispensation . . . . . 313
SECT. I. The Seed of Promise Abel, Enoch, . 314
... II. Noah and the Deluge, ... 321
... III. The New "World and its Inheritors the
Men of Faith, .... 330
... IV. The change in the Divine Call from the
general to the particular Shem, Abra
ham, ..... 339
V. The subjects and channels of blessing
Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and the twelve
Patriarchs, . . . . 350
... VI. The Inheritance destined for the Heirs of
Blessing, . . . . . 386
CONTENTS. 1 1
Page
APPENDIX A. The Old Testament in the New, ... 423
I. The Historical and Didactic portions, . . 423
II. Prophecies referred to by Christ, . . 430
III. The deeper principles involved in Christ s
use of the Old Testament, . . 436
IV. The applications made by the Evangelists
of Old Testament Prophecies, . 444
V. Applications in the writings of the Apostle
Paul, ..... 452
VI. The applications made in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, .... 460
B. The doctrine of a Future State, . 467
C. On Sacrificial Worship, . . . 487
D. Does the original relation of the seed of Abraham to
the land of Canaan afford any ground for expect
ing their final return to it ? . . . 492
E. The relation of Canaan to the state of final rest, . 496
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
BOOK FIRST.
INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF TYPICAL INTERPRETATION, WITH A VIEW
CHIEFLY TO THE DETERMINATION OF THE REAL NATURE AND DESIGN OF
TYPES, AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY ENTERED INTO GOD S EARLIER
DISPENSATIONS.
CHAPTER FIRST.
HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE PAST AND PRESENT
STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION ON THE SUBJECT.
THE Typology of Scripture has been one of the most neglected
departments of theological science. It has never altogether
escaped from the region of doubt and uncertainty ; and some
still regard it as a field incapable, from its very nature, of being
satisfactorily explored, or cultivated so as to yield any sure and
appreciable results. Hence it is not unusual to find those who
otherwise are agreed in their views of divine truth, and in the
general principles of biblical interpretation, differing materially
in the estimate they have formed of the Typology of Scripture.
Where one hesitates, another is full of confidence; and the
landmarks that are set up to-day are again shifted to-morrow.
With such various and contradictory sentiments prevailing on
the subject, it is necessary, in the first instance, to take an
historical and critical survey of the field, that from the careful
revision of what has been done in the past, we may the more
VOL. I. B
18 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
readily perceive what still remains to be accomplished, in order
that we may arrive at a well-grounded and scriptural Typology.
I. We naturally begin with the Christian Fathers. Their
typological views, however, are only to be gathered from the
occasional examples to be met with in their writings ; as they
nowhere lay down any clear and systematic principles for the
regulation of their judgments in the matter. Some exception
might, perhaps, be made in respect to Origen. And yet with
such vagueness and dubiety has he expressed himself regarding
the proper interpretation of Old Testament Scripture, that by
some he has been understood to hold, that there is a fourfold, by
others a threefold, and by others again only a twofold, sense in
the sacred text. The truth appears to be, that while he con
tended for a fourfold application of Scripture, he regarded it as
susceptible only of a twofold sense. And considered generally,
the principles of interpretation on which he proceeded were not
essentially different from those usually followed by the great
majority of the Greek Fathers. But before stating how these
bore on the subject now under consideration, it will be necessary
to point out a distinction too often lost sight of, both in earlier
and in later times, between allegorical and typical interpreta
tions, properly so called. These have been very commonly con
founded together, as if they were essentially one in principle,
and differed only in the extent to which the principle may be
carried. There is, however, a specific difference between the
two, which it is not very difficult to apprehend, and which it is
of some importance to notice in connection especially with the
interpretations of patristic writers.
An allegory is a narrative, either expressly feigned for the
purpose, or if describing facts which really took place de
scribing them only for the purpose of representing certain higher
truths or principles than the narrative, in its literal aspect,
whether real or fictitious, could possibly have taught. The osten
sible representation, therefore, if not invented, is at least used,
simply as a cover for the higher sense, which may refer to things
ever so remote from those immediately described, if only the
corresponding relations are preserved. So that allegorical inter
pretations of Scripture properly comprehend the two following
THE VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 19
cases, and these only: 1. When the scriptural representation is
actually held to have had no foundation in fact to be a mere
myth, or fabulous description, invented for the sole purpose of
exhibiting the mysteries of divine truth ; or, 2. When without
moving any question about the real or fictitious nature of the re
presentation it is considered incapable as it stands of yielding
any adequate or satisfactory sense, and is consequently employed,
precisely as if it had been fabulous , to convey some meaning of
an entirely different and higher kind. The difference between
allegorical interpretations, in either of these senses, and those
which are properly called typical, cannot be fully exhibited till
we have ascertained the exact nature and design of a type. It
will be enough meanwhile to say, that typical interpretations of
Scripture differ from allegorical ones of the first or fabulous
kind, in that they indispensably require the reality of the facts
or circumstances stated in the original narrative. And they
differ also from the other, in requiring, beside this, that the
same truth or principle be embodied alike in the type and the
antitype. The typical is not properly a different or higher sense,
but a different or higher application of the same sense.
Returning, then, to the writings of the Fathers, and using
the expressions typical and allegorical in the senses now respec
tively ascribed to them, there can be no doubt that the Fathers
generally were much given both to typical and allegorical expla
nations, the Greek Fathers more to allegorical than to typical,
and to allegorical more in the second than in the first sense,
described above. They do not appear, for the most part, to
have discredited the plain truth or reality of the statements
made in Old Testament history. They seem rather to have
considered the sense of the latter true and good, so far as it
went, but of itself so meagre and puerile, that it was chiefly to
be regarded as the vehicle of a much more refined and ethereal
instruction. Origen, however, certainly went farther than this,
and expressly denied that many things in the Old Testament
had any real existence. In his Principia (Lib. iv.) he affirms,
that " when the Scripture history could not otherwise be accom
modated to the explanation of spiritual things, matters have
been asserted which did not take place, nay, which could not
have taken place ; and others again, which, though they might
20 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
have occurred, yet never actually did so." Again, when speak
ing of some notices in the life of Rebecca, he says " In these
things, I have often told you, there is not a relation of histories,
hut a concoction of mysteries." 1 And, in like manner, in his
annotations on the first chapters of Genesis, he plainly scouts
the idea of God s having literally clothed our first parents with
the skins of slain beasts calls it absurd, ridiculous, and unworthy
of God, and declares that in such a case the naked letter is not
to be adhered to as true, but exists only for the spiritual treasure
which is concealed under it. 2
Statements of this kind are of too frequent occurrence in the
writings of Origen to have arisen from inadvertence, or to admit
of being resolved into mere hyperboles of expression. They
were, indeed, the natural result of that vicious system of inter
pretation which prevailed in his age, when it fell, as it did in
his case, into the hands of an ardent and enthusiastic follower.
At the same time it must be owned, in behalf of Origen, that
however possessed of what has been called a the allegorical
fury," he does not appear generally to have discredited the facts
of sacred history ; and that he differed from the other Greek
Fathers, chiefly in the extent to which he went in decrying the
literal sense as carnal and puerile, and extolling the mystical as
alone suited for those who had become acquainted with the true
wisdom. It would be out of place here, however, to go into any
particular illustration of this point, as it is not immediately con
nected with our present inquiry. But we shall refer to a
single specimen of his allegorical mode of interpretation, for
the purpose chiefly of showing distinctly how it differed from
what is of a simply typological character. We make our selec
tion from Origen s homily on Abraham s marriage with Keturah
(Horn. vi. in Genes.). He does not expressly disavow his belief
in the fact of such a marriage having actually taken place
between the parties in question, though his language seems to
point in that direction ; but he intimates that this, in common
with the other marriages of the patriarchs, contained a sacra
mental mystery. And what might this be? Nothing less
than the sublime truth, " that there is no end to wisdom, and
that old age sets no bounds to improvement in knowledge. The
1 Opera, Vol. II., p. 88, Ed. Delarue. 2 Ibid., p. 29.
THE VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 21
death of Sarah (he says) is to be understood as the perfecting
of virtue. But he who has attained to a consummate and
perfect virtue, must always be employed in some kind of learn
ing which learning is called by the divine Word, his wife.
Abraham, therefore, when an old man, and his body in a manner
dead, took Kcturah to wife. I think it was better, according to
the exposition we follow, that the wife should have been received
when his body was dead, and his members were mortified. For
we have a greater capacity for wisdom when we bear about the
dying of Christ in our mortal body. Then Keturah, whom he
married in his old age, is, by interpretation, incense, or sweet
odour. For he said, even as Paul said, ( We are a sweet savour
of Christ. Sin is a foul and putrid thing ; but if any of you
in whom this no longer dwells, have the fragrance of righteous
ness, the sweetness of mercy, and by prayer continually offer up
incense to God, ye also have taken Keturah to wife." And
forthwith he proceeds to show, how many such wives may be
taken : hospitality is one, the care of the poor another, patience
a third, each Christian excellence, in short, a wife ; and hence
it was, that the patriarchs are reported to have had so many
wives, and that Solomon is said to have possessed them even by
hundreds, he having received plenitude of wisdom like the sand
on the sea-shore, and consequently grace to exercise the largest
number of virtues.
We have here a genuine example of allegorical interpreta
tion, if not actually holding the historical matter to be fabulous,
at least treating it as if it were so. It is of no moment, for
any purpose which such a mode of interpretation might serve,
whether Abraham and Keturah had a local habitation among
this world s families, and whether their marriage was a real fact
in history, or an incident fitly thrown into a fictitious narrative,
constructed for the purpose of symbolizing the doctrines of a
divine philosophy. If it had been handled after the manner of
a type, and not as an allegory, whatever specific meaning might
have been ascribed to it as a representation of gospel mysteries,
the story must have been assumed as real, and the act of
Abraham made to correspond with something essentially the
same in kind some sort of union, for example, between parties
holding a similar relation to each other, that Abraham did to
22 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Keturah. In this, though there might have been an error in
the particular application that was made of the story, there
would at least have been some appearance of a probable ground
for it to rest upon. But sublimated into the ethereal form it
receives from the fertile genius of Origen, the whole, history
and interpretation together, presently acquires an uncertain and
shadowy aspect. For what connection, either in the nature of
things, or in the actual experience of the Father of the Faith
ful, can be shown to exist between the death of a wife, and the
consummation of virtue in the husband ; or the wedding of a
second wife, and his pursuit of knowledge 1 Why might not
the loss sustained in the former case as well represent the decay
of virtue, and the acquisition in the latter denote a relaxation in
the search after the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge ?
There would evidently be as good reason for asserting the one
as the other ; and, indeed, with such an arbitrary and elastic
style of interpretation, there is nothing, either false or true in
doctrine, wise or unwise in practice, which might not claim sup
port in Scripture. The Bible would be made to reflect every
hue of fancy, and every shade of belief in those who assumed
the office of interpretation ; and instead of being rendered ser
viceable to a higher instruction, it would be turned into one vast
sea of uncertainty and confusion.
In proof of this we need only appeal to the use which
Clement of Alexandria, Origen s master, has made of another
portion of sacred history which relates to Abraham s wives
(Strom. L. I. p. 333). The instruction which he finds couched
under the narrative of Abraham s marriage successively to Sarah
and Hagar, is that a Christian ought to cultivate philosophy and
the liberal arts before he devotes himself wholly to the study of
divine wisdom. This he endeavours to make out in the follow
ing manner : Abraham is the image of a perfect Christian,
Sarah the image of Christian wisdom, and Hagar the image of
philosophy or human wisdom (certainly a far from agreeable like
ness !). Abraham lived for a long time in a state of connubial
sterility ; whence it is inferred that a Christian, so long as he
confines himself to the study of divine wisdom and religion
alone, will never bring forth any great or excellent fruits.
Abraham, then, with the consent of Sarah, takes to him Hagar,
THE VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 23
which proves, according to Clement, that a Christian ought to
embrace the wisdom of this world, or philosophy, and that Sarah,
or divine wisdom, will not withhold her consent. Lastly, after
Hagar had borne Ishmael to Abraham, he resumed his inter
course with Sarah, and of her begat Isaac ; the true import of
which is, that a Christian, after having once thoroughly grounded
himself in human learning and philosophy, will, if he then
devotes himself to the culture of divine wisdom, be capable of
propagating the race of true Christians, and of rendering essen
tial service to the Church. Thus we have two entirely different
senses extracted from similar transactions by the master and the
disciple ; and still, far from being exhausted, as many more
might be obtained, as there are fertile imaginations disposed to
turn the sacred narrative into the channel of their own peculiar
conceits.
It was not simply the historical portions of Old Testament
Scripture which were thus allegorized by Origen, and the other
Greek Fathers who belonged to the same school. A similar
mode of interpretation was applied to the ceremonial institutions
of the ancient economy ; and a higher sense was often sought
for in these, than we find any indication of in the epistle to the
Hebrews, Clement even carried the matter so far as to apply
the allegorical principle to the ten commandments, an extrava
gance in which Origen did not follow him ; though we can
scarcely tell why he should not have done so. For, even the
moral precepts of the Decalogue touch at various points on the
common interests and relations of life ; and it was the grand
aim of the philosophy, in which the allegorizing then prevalent
had its origin, to carry the soul above these into the high abstrac
tions of a contemplative theosophy. The Fathers of the Latin
church were much less inclined to such airy speculations, and
their interpretations of Scripture, consequently, possessed more
of a realistic and common sense character. Allegorical inter
pretations are, indeed, occasionally found in them, but they are
more sparingly introduced, and less extravagantly carried out. 1
1 See, however, a thorough specimen of allegorizing after the manner
of Origen, on the " Sacramentum," involved in the name and office of
Abishag, in Jerome s letter to Nepotianus (Ep. 52 Ed. Yallars.), indicating,
as he thinks, the larger development of wisdom in men of advanced age.
24 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Typical meanings, however, are as frequent in the one class as
in the other, and equally adopted without rule or limit. If in
the Eastern church we find such objects as the tree of life in
the garden of Eden, the rod of Moses, Moses himself with his
arms extended during the conflict with Amalek, exhibited as
types of the cross ; in the Western church, as represented, for
example, by Augustine, we meet with such specimens as the
following: "Wherefore did Christ enter into the sleep of
death ? Because Adam slept when Eve was formed from his
side, Adam being the figure of Christ, Eve as the mother of
the living, the figure of the church. And as she was formed
from Adam while he was asleep, so was it when Christ slept on
the cross, that the sacraments of the church flowed from His
side." 1 So, again, Saul is represented as the type of death,
because God unwillingly appointed him king over Israel, as He
unwillingly subjected His people to the sway of death ; and
David s deliverance from the hand of Saul foreshadowed our
deliverance through Christ from the power of death ; while in
David s escape from Saul s hand, coupled with the destruction
that befell Ahimelech on his account, if not in his stead, there was
a prefiguration of Christ s death and resurrection. 2 In the treat
ment of New Testament Scripture also, the same style of inter
pretation is occasionally resorted to, as when in the six water-
pots of John s Gospel he finds imaged the six ages of prophecy ;
and in the two or three firkins which they severally held, the
two are taken to indicate the Father and the Son, the three the
Trinity ; or, as he also puts it, the two represent the Jews and
the Gentiles, and the third, Christ, making the two one (Tract
ix. in Joan.). But we need not multiply examples, or prosecute
the subject further into detail. Enough has been adduced to
show, that the earlier divines of the Christian church had no
just or well-defined principles to guide them in their interpre
tations of Old Testament Scripture, which could either enable
them to determine between the fanciful and the true in typical
applications, or guard them against the worst excesses of allego
rical licence. 3
1 On Psalm xli. 2 On Psalm xlii.
3 The major part of our readers, perhaps, may be of opinion that they
have already been detained too long with the subject, believing that such
THE VIEWS OF THE REFORMERS. 25
II. Passing over the period of the middle ages, which pro
duced nothing new in this line, we come to the divines of the
Reformation. At that memorable era a mighty advance was
made, not only beyond the ages immediately preceding, but
also beyond all that had passed from the commencement of
Christianity, in the sound interpretation of Scripture. The
original text then at last began to be examined with something
like critical exactness, and a stedfast adherence was generally
professed, and in good part also maintained, to the natural and
grammatical sense. The leading spirits of the Reformation
were here also the great authors of reform. Luther denounced
mystical and allegorical interpretations as " trifling and foolish
fables, with which the Scriptures were rent into so many and
diverse senses, that silly poor consciences could receive no certain
interpretations are for ever numbered among the things that were. So we
were ourselves disposed to think. And yet we have lived to see a substan
tial revival of the allegorical style of interpretation, in a work of compara
tively recent date, and a work that bears the marks of an accomplished and
superior mind. We refer to that portion of Mr Worsley s Produce of the
Intellect in Religion, which treats of the Patriarchs in their Christian Import,
and the Apostles as the Completion of the Patriarchs. His notion respecting
the Patriarchs briefly is, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob respectively,
"present to us the eternal triune object" of worship, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost ; that the marriages of the Patriarchs symbolize God s union
with His church, and with each member of it ; and especially is this done
through the wives and children of Jacob, at least in regard to its practical
tendency and sanctifying results. In making out the scheme, the names
of the persons mentioned in the history are peculiarly dwelt upon, as fur
nishing a sort of key to the allegorical interpretation. Thus Leah, whose
name means wearisome and fatiguing labour, was the symbol of "services
and works which are of little worth in themselves labours rather of a pain
ful and reluctant duty, than of a free and joyful love." " She sets forth
to us that fundamental repulsiveness or stubbornness of our nature, whose
proper and ordained discipline is the daily taskwork of duty, as done not
to man, nor to self, but to God." Afterwards, Leah is identified with the
ox, as the symbol of stubbornness and wearisome labour; and so "with
Leah the ox symbolizes our taskwork of duty, and our capacity for it,"
while the sheep (Rachel signifying sheep) symbolizes "our labours of love,
i.e., our real rest and capacity for it." (P. 71, 113, 128.) It may be con
jectured from this specimen what ingenuities require to be plied before the
author can get through all the twelve sons of Jacob, so as to make them
symbols of the different graces and operations of a Christian life. We object
to the entire scheme. 1. Because it is perfectly arbitrary. Though Scrip-
26 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
doctrine of anything." 1 Calvin, in like manner, declares that
"the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious
meaning, by which we ought resolutely to abide ;" and speaks
of the "licentious system" of Origen and the allegorists, as
" undoubtedly a contrivance of Satan to undermine the authority
of Scripture, and to take away from the reading of it the true
advantage." 2 In some of his interpretations, especially on the
prophetical parts of Scripture, he even went to an extreme in
advocating what he here calls the natural and obvious meaning,
and thereby missed the more profound import, which, according
to the elevated and often enigmatical style of prophecy, it was
the design of the Spirit to convey. On the other hand, in spite
of their avowed and generally followed principles of interpreta-
ture sometimes warrants us in laying stress on names, as expressive of spiri
tual ideas or truths connected with the persons they belong to, yet it is only
when the history itself draws attention to them, and even then they never
stand alone, as the names often do with Mr Worsley, the only keys to the
import of the transactions : as if, where acts entirely fail, or where they
appear to be at variance with the symbolical ideal, the key were still to be
found in the name. Scripture nowhere, for example, lays any stress upon
the names of Leah and Rachel ; while it very pointedly refers to the bad
eyes of the one, and the attractive comeliness of the other. And if we were
inclined to allegorize at all, we should deem it more natural, with Justin
Martyr (Trypho, c. 42) and Jerome (on Hos. xii. 3), to regard Leah as the
symbol of the blear-eyed Jewish church, and Rachel of the beloved church
of the Gospel. Even this, however, is quite arbitrary, for there is nothing
properly in common between the symbol and the thing symbolized no real
bond of connection uniting them together. And if by tracing out such
lines of resemblance, we might indulge in a pleasing exercise of fancy, we
can never deduce from them a revelation of God s mind and will. 2. But
further, such explanations offend against great fundamental principles the
principle, for example, that the Father cannot be represented as entering
into union with the Church, viewed as distinct from the Son and the Spirit ;
and the principle that a sinful act or an improper relation cannot be the
symbol of what is divine and holy. In such a case there never can be any
real agreement. "Who, indeed, can calmly contemplate the idea of Abra
ham s connection with Hagar, or Jacob s connection with the two sisters
and their handmaids in themselves both manifestly wrong, and receiving
on them manifest tokens of God s displeasure in providence should be the
chosen symbol of God s own relation to the Church ? How very different
an allegorizing of this sort is from the typical use made of them in Scrip
ture will be shown in the sequel.
1 On Gal. iv. 26. 2 On Gal. iv. 22.
THE COCCEIAN SCHOOL. 27
tion, the writers of the Reformation-period not unfrequently fell
into the old method of allegorizing, and threw out typical ex
planations of a kind that cannot stand a careful scrutiny. It
were quite easy to produce examples of this from the writings
of those who lived at and immediately subsequent to the Re
formation ; but it would be of no service as regards our present
object, since their attention was comparatively little drawn to
the subject of types ; and none of them attempted to construct
any distinct typological system.
III. We pass on, therefore, to a later period about the
middle of the seventeenth century when the science of theology
began to be studied more in detail, and the types consequently
received a more formal consideration. About that period arose
what is called the Cocceian school, which, though it did not
revive the double sense of the Alexandrian (for Cocceius ex
pressly disclaimed any other sense of Scripture than the literal
and historical one), yet was chargeable in another respect with
a participation in the caprice and irregularity of the ancient
allegorists. Cocceius himself, less distinguished as a systematic
writer in theology than as a Hebrew scholar and learned ex
positor of Scripture, left no formal enunciation of principles
connected with typical or allegorical interpretations ; and it is
chiefly from his annotations on particular passages, and the
more systematic works of his followers, that these are to be
gathered. How freely, however, he was disposed to draw upon
Old Testament history for types of Gospel things, may be
understood from a single example his viewing what is said of
Asshur going out and building Nineveh, as a type of the Turk
or Mussulman power, which at once sprang from the kingdom,
and shook the dominion of Antichrist (cur. Prior, in Gen. x.
11.). Pie evidently conceived that every event in Old Testament
history, which had a formal resemblance to something under
the New, was to be regarded as typical. And that, even not
withstanding his avowed adherence to but one sense of Scripture,
he could occasionally adopt a second, appears alone from his
allegorical interpretation of the eighth Psalm; according to
which the sheep there spoken of, as being put under man, are
Christ s flock the oxen, those who labour in Christ s service
28 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the leasts of the field, such as are strangers to the city and king
dom of God, barbarians and savages the fowl of the air and
fish of the sea, persons at a still greater distance from godliness ;
so that, as he concludes, there is nothing so wild and intractable
on earth but it shall be brought under the rule and dominion of
Christ.
It does not appear, however, that the views of Cocceius
differed materially from those which were held by some who
preceded him ; and it would seem rather to have been owing to
his eminence generally as a commentator than to any distinctive
peculiarity in his typological principles, that he came to be so
prominently identified with the school, which from him derived
the name of Cocceian. If we turn to one of the earlier editions
of Glass s Philologia Sacra, published before Cocceius com
menced his critical labours (the first was published before he
was born), we shall find the principles of allegorical and typical
interpretations laid down with a latitude which Cocceius himself
could scarcely have quarrelled with. Indeed, we shall find few
examples in his writings that might not be justified on the prin
ciples stated by Glass ; and though the latter, in his section on
allegories, has to throw himself back chiefly on the Fathers, he
yet produces some quotations in support of his views, both on
these and on types, from some writers of his own age. There
seems to have been no essential difference between the typological
principles of Glass, Cocceius, Witsius, and Yitringa ; and though
the first wrote some time before, and the last about half a century
later than Cocceius, no injustice can be done to any of them by
classing them together, and referring indifferently to their several
productions. Like the Fathers, they did not sufficiently dis
tinguish between allegorical and typical interpretations, but re
garded the one as only a particular form of the other, and both
as equally warranted by New Testament Scripture. Hence,
the rules they adopted were to a great extent applicable to what
is allegorical in the proper sense, as well as typical, though for
the present we must confine ourselves to the typical department.
They held, then, that there was a twofold sort of types, the one
innate, consisting of those which Scripture itself has expressly
asserted to possess a typical character ; the other inferred, con
sisting of such as, though not specially noticed or explained in
T1IK COCCEIAN SCHOOL. 29
Scripture, were yet, on probable grounds, inferred by interpreters
as conformable to the analogy of faith, and the practice of the
inspired writers in regard to similar examples. 1 This latter class
were considered not less proper and valid than the other ; and
pains were taken to distinguish them from those which were
sometimes forged by Papists, and which were at variance with
the analogies just mentioned. Of course, from their very nature
they could only be employed for the support and confirmation
of truths already received, and not to prove what was in itself
doubtful. But not on that account were they to be less care
fully searched for, or less confidently used, because thus only,
it was maintained, could Christ be found in all Scripture, which
throughout testifies of Him.
It is evident alone, from this general statement, that there
was something vague and loose in the Cocceian system, which
left ample scope for the indulgence of a luxuriant fancy. Nor
can we wonder that, in practice, a mere resemblance, however
accidental or trifling, between an occurrence in Old, and another
in New Testament times, was deemed sufficient to constitute the
one a type of the other. Hence in the writings of the eminent
and learned men above referred to, we find the name of Abel
(emptiness) viewed as prefiguring our Lords humiliation ; the
occupation of Abel, Christ s office as the Shepherd of Israel ;
the withdrawal of Isaac from his father s house to the land of
Moriah, Christ s being led out of the temple to Calvary ; Adam s
awaking out of sleep, Christ s resurrection from the dead;
Samson s meeting a young lion by the way, and the transactions
that followed, Christ s meeting Saul on the road to Damascus,
with the important train of events to which it led; David s
gathering to himself a party of the distressed, the bankrupt,
and discontented, Christ s receiving into His Church publicans
and sinners ; with many others of a like nature.
Multitudes of examples perfectly similar that is, equally
destitute of any proper foundation in principle are to be found
in writers of our own country, such as Mather, 2 Keach, 3 Wor-
1 Philologia Sac. Lib. II. P. I. Tract. II. sect. 4. Vitringa Obs. Sac.
Vol. II. Lib. VI. c. 20. Witsius De (Econom. Lib. IV. c. 6.
2 The Figures and Types of the Old Testament.
5 Key to open the Scripture Metaphors and Types.
30 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
den, 1 J. Taylor, 2 Guild, 3 who belonged to the same school of
interpretation, and who nearly all lived toward the latter part
of the seventeenth century. Excepting the two first, they make
no attempt to connect their explanations with any principles of
interpretation, and these two very sparingly. Their works were
all intended for popular use, and rather exhibited by particular
examples, than systematically expounded the nature of their
views. They, however, agreed in admitting inferred as well as
innate types, but differed more perhaps from constitutional
temperament than on theoretical grounds in the extent to
which they respectively carried the liberty they claimed to go
beyond the explicit warrant of New Testament Scripture.
Mather in particular, and Worden, usually confine themselves
to such types as have obtained special notice of some kind from
the writers of the New Testament ; though they held the prin
ciple, that " where the analogy was evident and manifest between
things under the law and things under the Gospel, the one were
to be concluded (on the ground simply of that analogy) to be
types of the other." How far this warrant from analogy was
thought capable of leading, may be learned from Taylor and
Guild, especially from the latter, who has no fewer than forty-
nine typical resemblances between Joseph and Christ, and seven
teen between Jacob and Christ, not scrupling to swell the
number by occasionally taking in acts of sin, as well as circum
stances of an altogether trivial nature. Thus, Jacob s being a
supplanter of his brother, is made to represent Christ s sup
planting death, sin, and Satan ; his being obedient to his parents
in all things, Christ s subjection to His heavenly Father and His
earthly parents ; his purchasing his birthright by red pottage,
and obtaining the blessing by presenting savoury vension to his
father, clothed in Esau s garment, Christ s purchasing the
heavenly inheritance to us by His red blood, and obtaining the
blessing by offering up the savoury meat of His obedience, in
the borrowed garment of our nature, etc.
Now, we may affirm of these, and many similar examples
occurring in writers of the same class, that the analogy they
1 The Types Unveiled ; or, The Gospel Picked out of the Legal Cere
monies.
2 Moses and Aaron. 3 Moses Unveiled.
TPIE COCCEIAN SCHOOL. 31
found upon was a merely superficial resemblance appearing be
tween things in the Old and other things in the New Testament
Scriptures. But resemblances of this sort are so extremely
multifarious, and appear also so different according to the point
of view from which they are contemplated, that it was obviously
possible for any one to take occasion through them to introduce
the most frivolous conceits, and to caricature rather than vindi
cate the grand theme of the Gospel. Then, if such weight was
fitly attached to mere resemblances between the Old and the
New, even when they were altogether of a slight and superficial
kind, why should not profane as well as sacred history be ran
sacked for them ? What, for example, might prevent Romulus
(seeing that God is in all history, if this actually were history)
assembling a band of desperadoes, and founding a world-wide
empire on the banks of the Tiber, from serving, as well as David
in the circumstances specified above, to typify the procedure of
Christ in calling to him publicans and sinners at the commence
ment of His kingdom ? As many points of resemblance might
be found in the one case as in the other ; and the two trans
actions in ancient history, as here contemplated, stood much on
the same footing as regards the appointment of God ; for both
alike were the offspring of human policy, struggling against
outward difficulties, and endeavouring with such materials as
were available to supply the want of better resources. And thus,
by pushing the matter beyond its just limits, we reduce the
sacred to a level with the profane, and, at the same time, throw
an air of uncertainty over the whole aspect of its typical cha
racter. 1
That the Cocceian mode of handling the typical matter of
ancient Scripture so readily admitted of the introduction of
trifling, far-fetched, and even altogether false analogies, was one
of its capital defects. It had no essential principles or fixed
rules by which to guide its interpretations set up no proper
1 In the reference made above to the beginnings of David s kingdom, it
will be understood that the characters he associated with himself are simply
viewed in the light contemplated by the writers more immediately in view.
My own conviction is, that 1 Sam. xxii. 2, if rightly interpreted, would
present those who 1 gathered themselves to David as spiritually the better
sort in Israel those who were partly made bankrupt by oppression, and
partly were grieved and vexed in their minds at the existing state of things.
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
landmarks along the field of inquiry left room on every hand
for arbitrariness and caprice to enter. It was this, perhaps,
more than anything else, which tended to bring typical inter
pretations into disrepute, and disposed men, in proportion as
the exact and critical study of Scripture came to be cultivated,
to regard the subject of its typology as hopelessly involved in
conjecture and uncertainty. Yet this was not the only fault
inherent in the typological system now under consideration. It
failed, more fundamentally still, in the idea it had formed of the
connection between the Old and the New in God s dispensa
tions between the type and the thing typified which came to
be thrown mainly upon the mere forms and accidents of things,
to the comparative neglect of the great fundamental principles
which are common alike to all dispensations, and in which the
more vital part of the connection must be sought. It was this
more radical error, which in fact gave rise to the greater portion
of the extravagances that disfigured the typical illustrations of
our elder divines ; for it naturally led them to make account of
coincidences that were often unimportant, and sometimes only
apparent. And not only so ; but it also led them to undervalue
the immediate object and design of the types in their relation to
those who lived amongst them. While these as types speak a
language that can be distinctly and intelligently understood only
by us, who are privileged to read their meaning in the light of
Gospel realities, they yet had, as institutions in the existing wor
ship, or events in the current providence of God, a present pur
pose to accomplish, apart from the prospective reference to future
times, and we might almost say, as much as if no such reference
had belonged to them.
IV. These inherent errors and imperfections in the typo
logical system of the Cocceian school, were not long in leading
to its general abandonment. But theology had little reason to
boast of the change. For the system that supplanted it, with
out entering at all into a more profound investigation of the
subject, or attempting to explain more satisfactorily the grounds
of a typical connection between the Old and the New, simply
contented itself with admitting into the rank of types what had
been expressly treated as such in the Scripture itself, to the
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 33
exclusion of all besides. This seemed to be the only safeguard
against error and extravagance. 1 And yet, we fear, other
reasons of a less justifiable nature contributed not a little to
produce the result. An unhappy current had begun to set in
upon the Protestant Church in some places while Cocceius
still lived, and in others soon after his death, which disposed
many of her more eminent teachers to slight the evangelical
element in Christianity, and, if -not utterly to lose sight of
Christ Himself, at least to disrelish and repudiate a system
which delighted to find traces of Him in every part of revela
tion. It was the redeeming point of the earlier typology, which
should be allowed to go far in extenuating the occasional errors
connected with it, that it kept the work and kingdom of Christ
ever prominently in view, as the grand scope and end of all
God s dispensations. It felt, if we may so speak, correctly,
whatever it may have wanted in the requisite depth and preci
sion of thought. But towards the end of the seventeenth and
the beginning of the eighteenth century, a general coldness
very commonly discovered itself, both in the writings and the
lives of even the more orthodox sections of the Church. The
living energy and zeal which had achieved such important re
sults a century before, either inactively slumbered, or spent
itself in doctrinal controversies ; and the faith of the Church
1 The following critique of Buddeus, which belongs to the earlier part
of last century, already points in this direction : "It cannot certainly be
denied that the Cocceians, at least some of them, have carried this matter
too far. For, besides that they everywhere seem to find images and types
of future things, where other people can discern none, when they come to
make the application to the antitype, they not unfrequently descend to
minute and even trifling things, nay, advance what is utterly insignificant
and ludicrous, exposing holy writ to the mockery of the profane. And here
it may be proper to notice the fates of exegetical theology ; since that in
temperate rage for allegories which appeared in Origen and the Fathers, and
which had been condemned by the schoolmen, was again, after an interval,
though under a different form, produced anew upon the stage. For this
typical interpretation differs from the allegorical only in the circumstance,
that respect is had in it to the future things which are adumbrated by the
types ; and so, the typical may be regarded as a sort of allegorical interpre
tation. But in either way the amplest scope is afforded for the play of a
luxuriant fancy and a fertile invention." I. F. Buddei Isagoge II. hist.
Theolog. 1830.
VOL. I. C
34 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
was first corrupted in its simplicity, and then weakened in its
foundations by the pernicious influence of a widely cultivated,
but essentially anti-Christian philosophy. In such circumstances
Christ was not allowed to maintain His proper place in the New
Testament ; and it is not to be wondered at if He should have
been nearly banished from the Old.
Vitringa, who lived when this degeneracy from better times
had made considerable progress, attributed to it much of that
distaste which was then beginning to prevail in regard to typical
interpretations of Scripture. With special reference to the
work of Spencer on the Laws of the Hebrews, a work not less
remarkable for its low-toned, semi-heathenish spirit, than for its
varied and well-digested learning, he lamented the inclination
that appeared to seek for the grounds and reasons of the Mosaic
institutions in the mazes of Egyptian idolatry, instead of endea
vouring to discover in them the mysteries of the Gospel. These,
he believed, the Holy Spirit had plainly intimated to be couched
there ; and they shone, indeed, so manifestly through the insti
tutions themselves, that it seemed impossible for any one not to
perceive the type, who recognised the antitype. Nor could he
conceal his fear, that the talent, authority, and learning of such
men as Spencer would gain extensive credit for their opinions,
and soon bring the Typology of Scripture, as he understood it,
into general contempt. 1 In this apprehension he was certainly
not mistaken. Another generation had scarcely passed away
when Dathe published his edition of the Sacred Philology of
Glass, in which the section on types, to which we have already
referred, was wholly omitted, as relating to a subject no longer
thought worthy of a recognised place in the science of an en
lightened theology. The rationalistic spirit, in the progress of
its anti-Christian tendencies, had now discarded the innate, as
well as the inferred types of the elder divines ; and the con
venient principle of accommodation, which was at the same time
introduced, furnished an easy solution for those passages in New
Testament Scripture which seemed to indicate a typical rela
tionship between the past and the future. It was regarded as
only an adaptation, originating in Jewish prejudice or conceit,
of the facts and institutions of an earlier age to things essentially
1 Obs. Sac. Vol. II., p. 460, 461.
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 35
different under the Gospel ; but now, since the state of feeling
that gave rise to it no longer existed, deservedly suffered to fall
into desuetude. And thus the bond was virtually broken by the
hand of these rationalizing theologians between the Old and
the New in Revelation ; and the records of Christianity, when
scientifically interpreted, were found to have marvellously little
in common with those of Judaism.
In Britain various causes contributed to hold in check this
downward tendency, and to prevent it from reaching the same
excess of dishonour to Christ, which it soon attained on the Con
tinent. Even persons of a cold and philosophical temperament,
such as Clarke and Jortin, not only wrote in defence of types,
as having a certain legitimate use in Revelation, but also ad
mitted more within the circle of types than Scripture itself has
expressly applied to Gospel times. 1 They urged, indeed, the
necessity of exercising the greatest caution in travelling beyond
the explicit warrant of Scripture ; and in their general cast of
thought they undoubtedly had more affinity with the Spencerian
than the Cocceian school. Yet a feeling of the close and per
vading; connection between the Old and the New Testament dis-
o
pensations restrained them from discarding the more important
of the inferred types. Jortin especially falls so much into the
vein of earlier writers, that he employs his ingenuity in reckon
ing up as many as forty particulars in which Moses typically
prefigured Christ. A work composed about the same period as
that to which the Remarks of Jortin belong, and one that has
had more influence than any other in fashioning the typological
views generally entertained in Scotland the production of a
young dissenting minister in Dundee (Mr M Ewen) 2 is still
more free in the admission of types not expressly sanctioned in
the Scriptures of the New Testament. The work itself being
posthumous, and intended for popular use, contains no investi
gation of the grounds 011 which typical interpretations rest, and
harmonizes much more with the school that had flourished in
1 Clarke s Evidences, p. 420, sq. Jortin s Remarks on Ecclesiastical
History, Vol. I., p. 138-152.
2 Grace and Truth, or the Glory and Fulness of the Redeemer displayed,
in an attempt to explain the Types, Figures, and Allegories of the Old Tes
tament, by the Rev. AY. M Eweu.
36 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the previous century, than that to which Clarke and Jortin
belonged. As indicative of a particular style of biblical inter
pretation, it may be classed with the productions of Mather and
Taylor, and partakes alike of their excellences and defects.
There was, therefore, a considerable unwillingness in this
country to abandon the Cocceian ground on the subject of
types. The declension came in gradually, and its progress was
rather marked by a tacit rejection in practice of much that was
previously held to be typical, than by the introduction of views
specifically different. It became the practice of theologians to
look more into the general nature of things for the reasons of
Christianity, than into the pre-existing elements and character
istics of former dispensations; and to account for the peculiarities
of Judaism by its partly antagonistic, partly homogeneous rela
tion to Paganism, rather than by any covert reference it might
have to the coming realities of the Gospel. As an inevitable
consequence, the typological department of theology fell into
general neglect, from which the Old Testament Scriptures them
selves did not altogether escape. Those portions of them espe
cially which narrate the history and prescribe the religious rites
of the ancient Church, were but rarely treated in a manner that
bespoke any confidence in their fitness to minister to the spiritual
discernment and faith of Christians. It seems, partly at least,
to have been owing to this growing distaste for Old Testament
inquiries, and this general depreciation of its Scriptures, that
what is called the Hutchinsonian school arose in England,
which, by a sort of recoil from the prevailing spirit, ran into the
opposite extreme of searching for the elements of all knowledge,
human and divine, in the writings of the Old Testament. This
school possesses too much the character of an episode in the
history of biblical interpretation in this country, and was itself
too strongly marked by a spirit of extravagance, to render any
formal account of it necessary here. It was, besides, chiefly of
a physico-theological character, combining the elements of a
natural philosophy with the truths of revelation, both of which
it sought to extract from the statements, and sometimes even
from the words and letters of Scripture. The most profound
meanings were consequently discovered in the sacred text, in
respect alike to the doctrines of the Gospel and the truths of
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 37
science. One of the maxims of its founder was, that a every
passage of the Old Testament looks backward and forward, and
every way, like light from the sun ; not only to the state before
and under the law, but under the Gospel, and nothing is hid
from the light thereof." 1 When such a depth and complexity
of meaning was supposed to be involved in every passage, we
need not be surprised to learn, respecting the exactness of Abra
ham s knowledge of future events, that he knew from preceding
types and promises, that "one of his own line was to be sacrificed,
to be a blessing to all the race of Adam ; " and not only so,
but that when he received the command to offer Isaac, he pro
ceeded to obey it, "not doubting that Isaac was to be that person
who should redeem man." 2
The cabalistic and extravagant character of the Hutchinsonian
system, if it had any definite influence on the study of types and
other cognate subjects, could only tend to increase the suspicion
with which they were already viewed, and foster a disposition to
agree to whatever might keep investigation within the bounds of
sobriety and discretion. Accordingly, while nothing more was
done to unfold the essential and proper ground of a typical con
nection between Old and New Testament things, and to prevent
abuse by tracing the matter up to its ultimate and fundamental
principles, the more scientific students of the Bible came, by a
sort of common consent, to acquiesce in the opinion, that those
only were to be reckoned types to which Scripture itself, by ex
press warrant, or at least by obvious implication, had assigned
that character. Bishop Marsh may be named as perhaps the
ablest and most systematic expounder of this view of the subject.
He says, u There is no other rule by which we can distinguish
a real from a pretended type, than that of Scripture itself.
There are no other possible means by which we can know that
a previous design and a pre-ordained connection existed. What
ever persons or things, therefore, recorded in the Old Testament,
were expressly declared by Christ or by His apostles to have
been designed as prefigurations of persons or things relating to
the New Testament, such persons or things so recorded in the
former, are types of the persons or things with which they are
compared in the latter. But if we assert that a person or thing
1 Hutchinson s Works, Vol. I., p. 202. Ibid., Vol. VII., p. 325.
38 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
was designed to prefigure another person or thing, where no such
prefiguration has been declared by divine authority, we make an
assertion for which we neither have, nor can have, the slightest
foundation." 1 This is certainly a very authoritative and peremp
tory decision of the matter. But the principle involved in this
statement, though seldom so oracularly announced, has long
been practically received. It was substantially adopted by
Macknight, in his Dissertation on the Interpretation of Scrip
ture, at the end of his Commentary on the Epistles, before
Bishop Marsh wrote ; and it has been followed since by Vanmil-
dert and Conybeare in their Bampton Lectures, by Nares in his
Warburtonian Lectures, by Chevalier in his Hulsean Lectures,
by Home in his Introduction, and a host of other writers.
Judging from an article in the American Biblical Repository,
which appeared in the number for January 1841, it would appear
that the leading authorities on the other side of the Atlantic con
curred in the same general view. The reviewer himself advo
cates the opinion, that " no person, event, or institution, should be
regarded as typical, but what may be proved to be such from the
Scriptures," meaning by that their explicit assertion in regard to
the particular case. And in support of this opinion he quotes,
besides English writers, the words of two of his own countrymen,
Professor Stowe and Moses Stuart, the latter of whom says,
" That just so much of the Old Testament is to be accounted
typical as the New Testament affirms to be so, and no more.
The fact, that any thing or event under the Old Testament dis
pensation was designed to prefigure something under the New,
can be known to us only by revelation ; and of course all that
is not designated by divine authority as typical, can never be
made so by any authority less than that which guided the writers
of the New Testament." 2
Now, the view embraced by this school of interpretation lies
open to one objection, in common with the school that preceded
it. While the field, as to its extent, was greatly circumscribed,
and in its boundaries ruled as with square and compass, nothing
was done in the way of investigating it internally, or of unfolding
the grounds of connection between type and antitype. Fewer
points of resemblance are usually presented to us between the
1 Lectures, p. 373. 2 Stuart s Ernesti, p. 13,
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 39
one and the other by the writers of this school than arc found
in works of an older date ; but the resemblances themselves are
quite as much of a superficial and outward kind. The real har
mony and connection between the Old and the New in the divine
dispensations, stood precisely where it was. But other defects
adhere to this more recent typological system. The lead ing
excellence of the system thai; preceded it was the constant refer
ence it conceived the Scriptures of the Old Testament to bear
toward Christ and the Gospel dispensation ; and the practical
disavowal of this may be said to constitute the great defect of
the more exact, but balder system, which supplanted it with the
general suffrage of the learned. It drops a golden principle
for the sake of avoiding a few lawless aberrations. With such
narrow limits as it sets to our inquiries, we cannot indeed wander
far into the regions of extravagance. But in the very prescrip
tion of these limits, it wrongfully withholds from us the key of
knowledge, and shuts us up to evils scarcely less to be deprecated
than those it seeks to correct. For it destroys to a large extent
the bond of connection between the Old and the New Testament
Scriptures, and thus deprives the Christian Church of much of
the instruction in divine things which they were designed to
impart. Were men accustomed, as they should be, to search
for the germs of Christian truth in the earliest Scriptures, and
to regard the inspired records of both covenants as having for
their leading object " the testimony of Jesus," they would know
how much they were losers by such an undue contraction of the
typical element in Old Testament Scripture. And in proportion
as a more profound and spiritual acquaintance with the divine
word is cultivated, will the feeling of dissatisfaction grow in
respect to a style of interpretation that so miserably dwarfs and
cripples the relation which the preparatory bears to the ultimate
in God s revelations.
It is necessary, however, to take a closer view of the subject.
The principle on which this typological system takes its stand,
is, that nothing less than inspired authority is sufficient to deter
mine the reality and import of anything that is typical. But
what necessary reason or solid ground is there for such a prin
ciple ? No one holds the necessity of inspiration to explain each
particular prophecy, and decide even with certainty on its fulfil-
40 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
ment ; and why should it be reckoned indispensable in the closely
related subject of types ? This question was long ago asked by
Witsius, and yet waits for a satisfactory answer. A part only,
it is universally allowed, of the prophecies which refer to Christ
and His kingdom have been specially noticed and interpreted
by the pen of inspiration. So little necessary, indeed, was in
spiration for such a purpose, that even before the descent of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost, our Lord reproved His disciples as
" fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had
spoken." And from the close analogy between the two subjects
for what is a type but a prophetical act or institution 1 we
might reasonably infer the same liberty to have been granted,
and the same obligation to be imposed, in regard to the typical
parts of ancient Scripture. But we have something more than
a mere argument from analogy to guide us to this conclusion.
For the very same complaint is brought by an inspired writer
against private Christians concerning their slowness in under
standing the typical, which our Lord brought against His dis
ciples in respect to the prophetical portions of ancient Scripture.
In the epistle to the Hebrews a sharp reproof is administered
for the imperfect acquaintance believers among them had with
the typical character of Melchizedek, and subjects of a like
nature thus placing it beyond a doubt that it is both the duty
and the privilege of the Church, with that measure of the
Spirit s grace which it is the part even of private Christians to
possess, to search into the types of ancient Scripture, and come
to a correct understanding of them. To deny this, is plainly to
withhold an important privilege from the Church of Christ ; to
dissuade from it, is to encourage the neglect of an incumbent
duty.
But the unsoundness of the principle, which would thus
limit the number of types to those which New Testament Scrip
ture has expressly noticed and explained, becomes still more
apparent when it is considered what these really are, and in
what manner they are introduced. Leaving out of view the
tabernacle, with its furniture and services, which, as a whole,
is affirmed in the epistles to the Hebrews and the Colossians to
have been of a typical nature, the following examples are what
the writers now referred to usually regard as having something
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 41
like an explicit sanction in Scripture: 1. Persons or charac
ters: Adam (Rom. v. 11, 12; 1 Cor. xv. 22); Melchizedek
(Heb. vii.) ; Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, and by im
plication Abraham (Gal. iv. 22-35) ; Moses (Gal. iii. 19; Acts
iii. 22-26) ; Jonah (Matt. xii. 40) ; David (Ezek. xxxvii. 24 ;
Luke i. 32., etc.) ; Solomon (2 Sam. vii.) ; Zerubbabel and
Joshua (Zech. iii. iv. ; Hag. ii. 23). 2. Transactions or events :
the preservation of Noah and his family in the ark (1 Pet. iii.
20) ; the redemption from Egypt and its passover-memorial
(Luke xxii. 15, 16; 1 Cor. v. 7); the exodus (Matt. ii. 15);
the passage through the Red Sea, the giving of manna, Moses
veiling of his face while the law was read ; the water flowing
from the smitten rock ; the serpent lifted up for healing in the
wilderness, and some other things that befell the Israelites there
(1 Cor. x. ; John iii. 14, v. 33 ; Rev. ii. 17). 1
Now, let any person of candour and intelligence take his
Bible, and examine the passages to which reference is here made,
and then say, whether the manner in which these typical cha
racters and transactions are there introduced, is such as to in
dicate, that these alone were held by the inspired writers to be
prefigurative of similar characters and transactions under the
Gospel ? that in naming them they meant to exhaust the typical
bearing of Old Testament history ? On the contrary, we deem
it impossible for any one to avoid the conviction, that in what
ever respect these particular examples may have been adduced,
it is simply as examples adapted to the occasion, and taken from
1 We don t vouch, of course, for the absolute completeness of the above
list. Indeed, it is scarcely possible to know what would be regarded as a
complete list some feeling satisfied with an amount of recognition in
Scripture which seems quite insufficient in the eyes of others. There have
been those who, on the strength of Gen. xlix. 24, would insert Joseph among
the specially mentioned types, and claim also Sampson, on account of what
is written in Judges xiii. 5. But scriptural warrants of such a kind are out
of date now they can no longer be regarded as current coin. On the other
hand, there are not a few who deem the scriptural warrant insufficient for
some of those we have specified, and think the passages where they are
noticed refer to them merely in the way of illustration. The list, however,
comprises what are usually regarded as historical types, possessing distinct
scriptural authority, by writers belonging to the school of Marsh. The
arguments of those who would discard them altogether will be considered
under next division.
42 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
a vast storehouse, where many more were to be found. They
have so much at least the appearance of having been selected
merely on account of their suitableness to the immediate end in
view, that they cannot fairly be regarded otherwise than as
specimens of the class they belong to. And if so, they should
rather have the effect of prompting further inquiry than of re
pressing it; since, instead of themselves comprehending and
bounding the whole field of Scriptural Typology, they only ex
hibit practically the principles on which others of a like descrip
tion are to be discovered and explained.
Indeed, were it otherwise, nothing could be more arbitrary
and inexplicable than this Scriptural typology. For, what is
there to distinguish the characters and events, which Scripture
has thus particularized, from a multitude of others, to which the
typical element might equally have been supposed to belong ?
Is there anything on the face of the inspired record to make us
look on them in a singular light, and attribute to them a signifi
cance altogether peculiar respecting the future affairs of God s
kingdom ? So far from it, that we instinctively feel, if these
really possessed a typical character, so also must others, which
hold an equally, or perhaps even more prominent place in the
history of God s dispensations. Can it be seriously believed,
for example, that Sarah and Hagar stood in a typical relation to
Gospel times, while no such place was occupied by Rebekah, as
the spouse of Isaac, and the mother of Jacob and Esau ? What
reason can we imagine for Melchizedec and Jonah having been
constituted types persons to whom our attention is compara
tively little drawn in Old Testament history while such leading
characters as Joseph, Sampson, Joshua, are omitted? Or, for
selecting the passage through the Red Sea, and the incidents in
the wilderness, while no account should be made of the passage
through Jordan, and the conquest of the land of Canaan ?
We can scarcely conceive of a mode of interpretation which
should deal more capriciously with the word of God, and make
so anomalous a use of its historical records. Instead of investing
these with a homogeneous character, it arbitrarily selects a few
out of the general mass, and sets them up in solitary grandeur,
like mystic symbols in a temple, fictitiously elevated above the
sacred materials around them. The exploded principle, which
THE SCHOOL OF MARSH. 43
sought a type in every notice of Old Testament history, had at
least the merit of uniformity to recommend it, and could not be
said to deal partially, however often it might deal fancifully,
with the facts of ancient Scripture. But according to the plan
now under review, for which the authority of inspiration itself
is claimed, we perceive nothing but arbitrary distinctions and
groundless preferences. And though unquestionably it were
wrong to expect in the word of God the methodical precision
and order which might naturally have been looked for in a
merely human composition, yet as the product, amid all its
variety, of one and the same Spirit, we are warranted to expect
that there shall be a consistent agreement among its several
parts, and that distinctions shall not be created in the one
Testament, which in the other seem destitute of any just foun
dation or apparent reason.
But then, if a greater latitude is allowed, how shall we guard
against error and extravagance 1 Without the express authority
of Scripture, how shall we be able to distinguish between a happy
illustration and a real type ? In the words of Bishop Marsh :
" By what means shall we determine, in any given instance, that
what is alleged as a type, was really designed for a type ? The
only possible source of information on this subject is Scripture
itself. The only possible means of knowing that two distant,
though similar historical facts, were so connected in the general
scheme of Divine Providence that the one was designed to pre
figure the other, is the authority of that book in which the
scheme of Divine Providence is unfolded." 1 This is an objec*-
tion, indeed, which strikes at the root of the whole matter, and
its validity can only be ascertained by a thorough investigation
into the fundamental principles of the subject. That Scripture
is the sole rule, on the authority of which we are to distinguish
what is properly typical from what is not, we readily grant
though not in the straitened sense contended for by Bishop
Marsh and those who hold similar views, as if there were no
way for Scripture to furnish a sufficient direction on the subject,
except by specifying every particular case. It is possible, surely,
that in this, as well as in other things, Scripture may indicate
certain fundamental views or principles, of which it makes but
1 Lectures, p. 372.
44 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
a few individual applications, and for the rest leaves them in the
hand of spiritually enlightened consciences. The rather may
we thus conclude, as it is one of the leading peculiarities of New
Testament Scripture to develop great truths, much more than to
dwell on minute and isolated facts. It is a presumption against,
not in favour of, the system we now oppose, that it would shut
up the Tvpology of Scripture, in so far as connected with the
characters and events of sacred history, within the narrow circle
of a few scattered and apparently random examples. And the
attempt to rescue it from this position, if in any measure success
ful, will also serve to exhibit the unity of design which pervades
the inspired records of both covenants, the traces they contain
of the same Divine hand, the subservience of the one to the
other, and the mutual dependence alike of the Old upon the
New, and of the New upon the Old.
V. We have still, however, another stage of our critical sur
vey before us, and one calling in some respects for careful dis
crimination and inquiry. The style of interpretation which we
have connected with the name of Marsh could not, in the nature
of things, afford satisfaction to men of thoughtful minds, who
must have something like equitable principles as well as external
authority to guide them in their interpretations. Such persons
could not avoid feeling that, if there was so much in the Old
Testament bearing a typical relation to the New, as was admitted
on Scriptural authority by the school of Marsh, there must be
considerably more; and also, that underneath that authority
there must be a substratum of fundamental principles capable
of bearing what Scripture itself has raised on it, and whatever
besides may fitly be conjoined with it. But some, again, might
possibly be of opinion that the authority of Scripture cannot
warrantably carry us so far; and that both Scriptural authority,
and the fundamental principles involved in the nature of the
subject, apply only in part to what the disciples of Marsh re
garded as typical. Accordingly, among more recent inquirers we
have examples of each mode of divergence from the formal rules
laid down by the preceding school of interpretation. The search
for first principles has disposed some greatly to enlarge the
typological field, and it has disposed others not less to curtail it.
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 45
1. To take the latter class first, as they stand most nearly
related to the school last discoursed of, representatives of it are
certainly not wanting on the Continent, among whom may be
named the hermeneutical writer Klausen, to whom reference
will presently be made in another connection. But it is the less
needful here to call in foreign authorities, as the view in question
has had its advocates in our own theological literature. It was
exhibited, for example, in Dr L. Alexander s Connection and
Harmony of the Old and New Testament (1841), in which,
while coinciding substantially with Bahr in his mode of explain
ing and applying to Gospel times the symbolical institutions of
the Old Covenant, he yet declared himself opposed to any further
extension of the typical sphere. He would regard nothing as
entitled to the name of typical, which did not possess the
character of "a divine institution;" or, as he formally defines
the entire class, " they are symbolical institutes expressly ap
pointed by God to prefigure to those among whom they were
set up certain great transactions in connection with that plan of
redemption which, in the fulness of time, was to be unfolded to
mankind." Hence the historical types of every description,
even those which the- school of Marsh recognised on account
of the place given to them in New Testament Scripture, were
altogether disallowed; the use made of them by the inspired
writers was held to be " for illustration merely, and not for the
purpose of building anything on them;" they are not thereby
constituted or proved to be types.
The same view, however, was taken up and received a much
keener and fuller advocacy by the American writer Mr Lord,
in a periodical not unknown in this country the Ecclesiastical
and Literary Journal (No. XV). This was done in connection
with a fierce and elaborate review of the first edition of the
Typology, in the course of which its system of exposition was
denounced as " a monstrous scheme," not only " without the
sanction of the word of God," but "one of the boldest and
most effective contrivances for its subversion." It is not my
intention now less, indeed, when issuing this new edition (the
fourth) than formerly to attempt to rebut such offensive
charges, or to expose the misrepresentations on which to a large
extent they were grounded. I should even have preferred, had
46 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
it been in my power to do so, repairing to some vindication of
the same view, equally strenuous in its advocacy, but conducted
in a calmer and fairer tone, in order that the discussion might
bear less of a personal aspect. But as my present object is
partly to unfold the gradual progress and development of
opinion upon the subject of Scriptural Typology, justice could
scarcely be done to it without hearing what Mr Lord has to
say for the section of British and American theologians he
represents, and meeting it with a brief rejoinder.
The writer s mode was a comparatively easy one for proving
a negative to the view he controverted. He began with setting
forth a description of the nature and characteristics of a type,
so tightened and compressed as to exclude all from the category
but what pertained to " the tabernacle worship, or the propitia
tion and homage of God." And having thus with a kind of
oracular precision drawn his enclosure, it was not difficult to
dispose of whatever else might claim to be admitted ; for it is
put to flight the moment he presents his exact definitions, and
can only be considered typical by persons of dreamy intellect,
who are utter strangers to clearness of thought and precision of
language. In this way it is possible, we admit, and also not very
difficult, to make out a scheme and establish a nomenclature of
one s own ; but the question is, Does it accord with the repre
sentations of Scripture ? and will it serve, in respect to these, as
a guiding and harmonizing principle 1 We might, in a similar
way, draw out a series of precise and definite characteristics of
Messianic prophecy, such as, that it must avowedly bear the
impress of a prediction of the future that it must in the most
explicit terms point to the person or times of Messiah that it
must be conveyed in language capable of no ambiguity or double
reference ; and then, with this sharp weapon in our hand, pro
ceed summarily to lop off all supposed prophetical passages in
which these characteristics are wanting holding such, if applied
to Messianic times, to be mere accommodations, originally in
tended for one thing, and afterwards loosely adapted to another.
The rationalists of a former generation were great adepts in
this mode of handling prophetical Scripture, and by the use of
it dexterously got rid of a goodly number of the passages which
in the New Testament are represented as finding their fulfil-
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 47
ment in Christ. But we have yet to learn, that by so doing
they succeeded in throwing any satisfactory light on the inter
pretation of Scripture, or in placing on a Scriptural basis the
connection between the Old and the New in God s dispensations.
How closely the principles of Mr Lord lead him to tread in
the footsteps of these effete interpreters, will appear presently.
But we must first lodge our protest against his account of the
essential nature and characteristics of a type, as entirely arbitrary
and unsupported by Scripture. The things really possessing
this character, he maintains, must have had the three following
distinctive marks : They must have been specifically constituted
types by God ; must have been known to be so constituted, and
contemplated as such by those who had to do with them ; and
must have been continued till the coming of Christ, when they
were abrogated or superseded by something analogous in the
Christian dispensation. These are his essential elements in the
constitution of a type ; and an assertion of the want of one or
more of them forms the perpetual refrain, with which he disposes
of those characters and transactions that in his esteem are falsely
accounted typical. We object to every one of them in the sense
understood by the writer, and deny that Scriptural proof can be
produced for them, as applying to the strictly religious symbols of
the Old Testament worship, and to them alone. These were not
specifically constituted types, or formally set up in that character,
no more than such transactions as the deliverance from Egypt,
or the preservation of Noah in the deluge, which are denied to
have been typical. In the manner of their appointment, viewed
by itself, there is no more to indicate a reference to the Messianic
future in the one than in the other. Neither were they for
certain known to be types, and used as such by the Old Testa
ment worshippers. They unqestionably were not so used in the
time of our Lord ; and how far they may have been at any
previous period, is a matter only of probable inference, but no
where of express revelation. Nor, finally, was it by any means
an invariable and indispensable characteristic, that they should
have continued in use till they were superseded by something
analogous in the Christian dispensation. Some of the anoint
ings were not so continued, nor the Shekinah, nor even the Ark
of the Covenant ; and some of them stood in occasional acts of
48 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
service, such as the Nazarite vow, in its very nature special and
temporary. The redemption from Egypt was in itself a single
event, yet it was closely allied to the symbolical services ; for
it was linked to an ever-recurring and permanent ordinance of
worship. It was a creative act, bringing Israel as a people of
God into formal existence, and as such capable only of being
commemorated, but not of being repeated. It was commemo
rated, however, in the passover-feast. In that feast the Israelites
continually freshened the remembrance of it anew on their hearts.
They in spirit re-enacted it as a thing that required to be con
stantly renewing itself in their experience, as in the Lord s
Supper is now done by Christians in regard to the one great
redemption-act on the cross. This, too, considered simply as an
act in God s administration, is incapable of being repeated ; it
can only be commemorated, and in its effects spiritually applied
to the conscience. Yet so far from being thereby bereft of an
antitypical character, it is the central antitype of the Gospel.
Why should it be otherwise in respect to the type ? The analogy
of things favours it ; and the testimony of Scripture not doubt
fully requires it.
To say nothing of other passages of Scripture which bear less
explicitly, though to our mind very materially, upon the subject,
our Lord Himself, at the celebration of the last passover, declared
to His disciples, " With desire I have desired to eat this passover
with you before I suffer ; for I say unto you, I will not any more
eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Luke
xxii. 15, 16.) That is, there is a prophecy as well as a memorial
in this commemorative ordinance, a prophecy, because it is the
rehearsal of a typical transaction, which is now, and only now,
going to meet with its full realization. Such appears to be the
plain and unsophisticated import of our Lord s words. And the
Apostle Paul is, if possible, still more explicit when he says,
u For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us (more exactly,
For also our passover has been sacrificed, Christ ) : therefore
let us keep the feast," etc. (1 Cor. v. 7, 8.) What, we again
ask, are we to understand by these words, if not that there is in
the design and appointment of God an ordained connection be
tween the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Passover, so
that the one, as the means of redemption, takes the place of the
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 49
other 1 In any other sense the language would be only fitted
to mislead, by begetting apprehensions regarding a mutual corre
spondence and connection which had no existence. It is alleged
on the other side, that " Christ is indeed said to be our passover,
but it is by a metaphor, and indicates only that it is by His
blood we are saved from everlasting death, as the first-born of
the Hebrews were saved by the blood of the paschal lamb from
death by the destroying angel." Were this all, the Apostle might
surely have expressed himself less ambiguously. If there was
no real connection between the earlier and the later event, and
the one stood as much apart from the other as the lintels of
Goshen in themselves did from the cross of Calvary, why employ
language that forces upon the minds of simple believers the
reality of a proper connection ? Simply, we believe, because it
actually existed ; and our " exegetical conscience," to use a
German phrase, refuses to be satisfied with Mr Lord s mere
metaphor. But when he states further, that the passover, having
been " appointed with a reference to the exemption of the first
born of the Israelites from the death that was to be inflicted on the
first-born of the Egyptians, it cannot be a type of Christ s death
for the sins of the world, as that would imply that Christ s death
also was commemorative of the preservation from an analogous
death," who does not perceive that this is to confound between
the passover as an original redemptive transaction, and as a
commemorative ordinance, pointing back to the great fact, and
perpetually rehearsing it ? It is as a festal solemnity alone that
there can be anything commemorative belonging either to the
Paschal sacrifice or to Christ s. Viewed, however, as redemptive
acts, there was a sufficient analogy between them : the one
redeemed the first-born of Israel (the firstlings of its families),
and the other redeems " the Church of the first-born, whose
names are written in heaven."
There is manifested a like tendency to evacuate the proper
meaning of Scripture in most of the other instances brought into
consideration. Christ, for example, calls Himself, with pointed
reference to the manna, "the bread of life;" and in Kev. ii. 17,
an interest in His divine life is called " an eating of the hidden
manna," but it is only " by a metaphor," precisely as Christ else
where calls Himself the vine, or is likened to a rock. As if
VOL. I. D
50 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
there were no difference between an employment of these natural
emblems and the identifying of Christ with the supernatural
food given to support His people, after a provisional redemption,
and on the way to a provisional inheritance ! It is not the simple
reference to a temporal good on which, in such a case, we rest
the typical import, but this in connection with the whole of the
relations and circumstances in which the temporal was given or
employed. Jonah was not, it is alleged, a type of Christ ; for
he is not called such, but only a "sign;" neither was Mel-
chizedek called by that name. Well, but Adam is called a type
(TZ/TTO? rov yu-eXXo^ro?, Rom. v. 14), and baptism is called the
antitype to the deluge (o /cal rjfjids avrtrvTrov vvv crcofet fianr-
rio-fjia, 1 Pet. iii. 21). True, but then, we are told, the word in
these passages only means a similitude ; it does not mean type
or antitype in the proper sense. What, then, could denote it ?
Is there any other term more properly fitted to express the idea ?
And if the precise term, when it is employed, still does not serve,
why object in other cases to the want of it ? Strange, surely,
that its presence and its absence should be alike grounds of
objection. But if the matter is to come to a mere stickling
about words, shall we have any types at all? Are even the
tabernacle and its institutions of worship called by that name ?
Not once ; but inversely, the designation of antitypes is in one
passage applied to them : " The holy places made with hands,
the antitypes of the true" (avrlrvrrd TWV a\ij0ivcov, Heb. ix. 24).
So little does Scripture, in its teachings on this subject, encourage
us to hang our theoretical explanations on a particular epithet !
It varies the mode of expression with all the freedom of common
discourse, and even, as in this particular instance, inverts the
current phraseology ; but still, amid all the variety, it indicates
with sufficient plainness a real economical connection between
the past and the present in God s dispensations, such as is
commonly understood by the terms type and antitype ; and this
is the great point, however we may choose to express it.
The passage in Galatians respecting Sarah and Isaac on the
one side, and Hagar and Ishmael on the other, naturally formed
one of some importance for the view sought to be established in
the Typology, and as such called for Mr Lord s special considera
tion. Here, as in other cases, he begins with the statement that
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 51
the characters and relations there mentioned have not the term
type applied to them, and hence should not be reckoned typical.
" It is only said," he continues, " that that which is related of
Hagar and Sarah is exhibited allegorically ; that is, that there
are other things that, used as allegorical representatives of Hagar
and Sarah, exhibit the same facts and truths. The object of the
allegory is to exemplify them by analogous things ; not by them
to exemplify something else, to which they present a resem
blance. It is they who are said to be allegorized, that is, repre
sented by something else ; not something else that is allegorized
by them. They are accordingly said to be the two covenants,
that is, like the two covenants ; and Mount Sinai is used to
represent the covenant that genders to bondage ; and Jeru
salem from above that is, the Jerusalem of Christ s kingdom
the covenant of freedom or grace. And they accordingly are
employed [by the Apostle] to set forth the character and condi
tion of the bond and the free woman, and their offspring. Pie
attempts to illustrate the lot of the two classes who are under
law and under grace ; first, by referring to the different relations
to the covenant, and different lot of the children of the bond
and the free woman ; and then, by using Mount Sinai to exem
plify the character and condition of those under the Mosaic law,
and the heavenly Jerusalem, to exemplify those who are under
the Gospel. The places from which the two covenants are pro
claimed are thus used to represent those two classes ; not Hagar
and Sarah to represent those places, or the covenants that are
proclaimed from them." Now, this show of exact criticism
professing to explain all, and yet leaving the main thing totally
unexplained is introduced, let it be observed, to expose an
alleged " singular neglect of discrimination" in the use we had
made of the passage. We had, it seems, been guilty of the
extraordinary mistake of supposing Hagar and Sarah to be
themselves the representatives in the Apostle s allegorization,
and not, as we should have done, the objects represented. Does
any of our readers, with all the advantage of the reviewer s
explanation, recognise the importance of this distinction ? Or
can he tell how it serves to explicate the Apostle s argument ?
I cannot imagine how any one should do so ? In itself it might
have been of no moment, though it is of much for the Apostle s
52 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
argument, whether Hagar and Sarah be said to represent the
two covenants of law and grace, or the two covenants be said to
represent them ; as in Heb. ix. 24, it is of no moment whether
the earthly sanctuary be called the antitype of the heavenly, or
the heavenly of the earthly. There is in both cases alike a
mutual representation, or relative correspondence ; and it is the
nature of the correspondence, inferior and preparatory in the
one case, spiritual and ultimate in the other, which is chiefly
important. It is that (though entirely overlooked by the re
viewer) which makes the Apostle s appeal here to the historical
transactions in the family of Abraham suitable and appropriate
to the object he has in view. For it is by the mothers and their
natural offspring he intends to throw light on the covenants, and
their respective tendencies and results. It was the earlier that
exemplified and illustrated the later, not the later that exem
plified and illustrated the earlier; otherwise the reference of
the Apostle is misplaced, and the reasoning he founds on it
manifestly inept.
One specimen more of this school of interpretation, and we
leave it. Among the passages of Scripture that were referred
to, as indicating a typical relationship between the Old and the
New in God s dispensations, is Matt. ii. 15, where the evangelist
speaks of Christ being in Egypt till the death of Herod, " that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the pro
phet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son." The allusion
to this passage in the first, as well as in the present, edition of
this work, was never meant to convey the idea that it was the
only Scriptural authority for concluding a typical relationship
to have subsisted between Israel and Christ. It was, however,
referred to as one of the passages most commonly employed by
typological writers in proof of such a relationship, and in itself
most obviously implying it. But what says our opponent?
" The language of Matthew does not imply that it (the passage
in Hosea) was a prophecy of Christ ; he simply states, that Jesus
continued in Egypt till Herod s death, so that that occurred in
respect to Him which had been spoken by Jehovah by the pro
phet, Out of Egypt have I called My Son ; or, in other words,
so that that was accomplished in respect to Christ which had
been related by the prophet of Israel." Was there not good
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 53
reason for indicating a close affinity between the typological
principles of this writer, and the loose interpretations of rational
ism ? One might suppose that it was a comment of Paulas or
Kuinoel that we are here presented with, and we transfer their
paraphrase and notes to the bottom of the page, to show how
entirely they agree in spirit. 1 If the Evangelist simply meant
what is ascribed to him, it was surely strange that he should
have taken so peculiar a way to express it. But if the words he
employs plainly intimate such a connection between Christ and
Israel, as gave to the testimony in Ilosea the force of a prophecy
(which is the natural impression made by the reference), who
has any right to tame down his meaning to a sense that would
entirely eliminate this prophetical element, the very element to
which, apparently, he was anxious to give prominence ? What
we have here to deal with is inspired testimony respecting the
connection between Israel and Christ; and it cannot have justice
done to it, unless it is taken in its broad and palpable import.
(See further, under Ch. IV., and Appendix A., c. 4.)
2. We turn now to the other class of writers, whose aim it
has been in recent times to enlarge and widen the typological
field. The chief, and for some time the only distinguished
representatives of it were to be found in Germany ; as it was
there also that the new and more profound spirit of investiga
tion began to develop itself. Near the commencement of the
present century the religions of antiquity began to form the
subject of more thoughtful and learned inquiry, and a depth of
meaning was discovered (sometimes perhaps only thought to be
discovered) in the myths and external symbols of these, which
in the preceding century was not so much as dreamt of.
Creuzer, in particular, by his great work (Symbolik) created
quite a sensation in this department of learning, and opened
up what seemed to be an entirely new field of research. He
was followed by Baur (Symbolik und Mythologie), Gorres
(Mythengeschichte), Miiller, and others of less note, each
1 Kuinoel : Ut adco hie recte possit laudari, quod dominus olim inter-
prete propheta dixit, nempe : ex ^Egypto vocavi filium meum. Paulus :
" TT^YipovaQoii is \ustQ fulfilling.^ as denoting a completion after the resemblance;"
and lie adopts as his own Ernesti s paraphrase, " Here one might say with
greater justice (in a fuller sense) what Hosea said of Israel."
54 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
endeavouring to proceed farther than preceding inquirers into
the explication of the religious views of the ancients, by weav
ing together and interpreting what is known of their historical
legends and ritual services. These inquiries were at first con
ducted merely in the way of antiquarian research and philoso
phical speculation ; and the religion of the Old Testament was
deemed, in that point of view, too unimportant to be made the
subject of special consideration. Creuzer only here and there
throws out some passing allusions to it. Even Baur, though a
theologian, enters into no regular investigation of the symbols
of Judaism, while he expatiates at great length on all the
varieties of Heathenism. By and by, however, a better spirit
appeared. Mosaism, as the religion of the Old Testament is
called, had a distinct place allotted it by Gorres among the
ancient religions of Asia. And at last it was itself treated at
great length, and with distinguished learning and ability, in a
separate work the Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus of Bahr
(published in 1837-9). This continues still (1863) to hold an
important place in Germany on the subject of the Mosaic
symbols, although it is pervaded by fundamental errors of the
gravest kind (to which we shall afterwards have occasion to
advert), and not unfrequently falls into fanciful views on
particular parts. Some of these were met by Hengstenberg in
the second volume of his Authentie des Pentateuchus, who has
also furnished many good typical illustrations in his Christology
and other exegetical works. Tholuck, in his Commentary on
the Hebrews, has followed in the same tract, generally adopting
the explanations of Hengstenberg, and still more recently
(chiefly since the publication of our first edition), further con
tributions have been made particularly by Kurtz, Baumgarten,
Delitzsch. Even De Wette, in his old age, caught something
of this new spirit ; and after many an effort to depreciate apostolic
Christianity by detecting in it symptoms of Judaical weakness
and bigotry, he made at least one commendable effort in the
nobler direction of elevating Judaism, by pointing to the manifold
germs it contained of a spiritual Christianity. In a passage
quoted by Bahr (vol. i., p. 16, from an article by De Wette on
the " Characteristik des Hebraismus "), he says " Christianity
sprang out of Judaism. Long before Christ appeared, the world
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 55
was prepared for His appearance : the entire Old Testament is a
great prophecy, a great type of Him who ivas to come, and has
come. Who can deny that the holy seers of the Old Testament
saw in spirit the advent of Christ long before He came, and in
prophetic anticipations, sometimes more, sometimes less clear,
descried the new doctrine? The typological comparison, also,
of the Old Testament with the New, was by no means a mere
play of fancy ; nor can it be regarded as altogether the result
of accident, that the evangelical history, in the most important
particulars, runs parallel with the Mosaic. Christianity lay in
Judaism as leaves and fruits do in the seed, though certainly it
needed the divine sun to bring them forth."
Such language, especially as coming from such a quarter,
undoubtedly indicated a marked change. Yet it must not be
supposed, on reading so strong a testimony, as if everything were
already conceded ; for what by such writers as De Wette is
granted in the general, is often denied or explained away in the
particular. Even the idea of a coming Messiah, as expressed in
the page of prophecy, was held to be little more than a patriotic
hope, the natural product of certain circumstances connected
with the Israelitish nation (see Ilengs. Christology, vol. iv., p.
391, Trans.). Nor did the new light thus introduced lead to
any well-grounded and regularly developed system of typo
logy, based on a clear and comprehensive view of the Divine
dispensations. Biihr confined himself almost entirely to the mere
interpretation of the symbols of the Mosaic dispensation, and
hence, even when his views were correct, rather furnished the
materials for constructing a proper typological system, than
himself provided. And it has been noted by Tholuck and
other learned men as a defect in their literature, that they are
without any work on the subject suited to the existing position
and demands of theological science. 1
1 This defect cannot yet be said to have been supplied ; not by the
Symbolique du Culte de L Ancicime Alliance (1860) of Neumann, published
since the above was written the work of a German, though written in
French. For not only is the work incomplete (the first part only having ap
peared), but it possesses more the nature of a condensed sketch or outline of
the subject, than a full investigation. So far as it goes, it is written with
clearness and vigour, contains some fine thoughts, and is pervaded by an
earnest and elevated spirit. Justice requires me to add, that it appears to
56 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
It is to be observed, however, that this new current of opinion
among the better part of theologians on the Continent, leads
them to find the typical element widely diffused through the
historical and prophetical, as well as the more strictly religious
portions of the Old Testament. No one who is in any degree
acquainted with the exegetical productions of Hengstenberg and
Olshausen, now made accessible to English readers, can have
failed to perceive this, from the tone of their occasional refer
ences and illustrations. Their unbiassed exegetical spirit rendered
it impossible for them to do otherwise ; for the same connection,
they perceived, runs like a thread through all the parts, and
binds them together into a consistent whole. Indeed, the only
formal attempt made to work out a new system of typological
interpretation, prior to the incomplete treatise mentioned in the
last note, the essay of Olshausen (published in 1824, and
consisting only of 124 widely printed pages), entitled, Ein Wort
uber tiefern Schriftsinn, has respect almost exclusively to the
historical and prophetical parts of ancient Scripture. When he
comes distinctly to unfold what he calls the deeper exposition of
Scripture, he contents himself with a brief elucidation of the
following points : That Israel s relation to God is represented
in Scripture as forming an image of all and each of mankind,
in so far as the divine life is possessed by them that Israel s
relation to the surrounding heathen in like manner imaged the
conflict of all spiritual men with the evil in the world that a
parallelism is drawn between Israel and Christ as the one who
completely realized what Israel should have been and that all
real children of God again image what, in the whole, is found
imperfectly in Israel and perfectly in Christ (pp. 87-110).
These positions, it must be confessed, indicate a considerable
degree of vagueness and generality ; and the treatise, as a whole,
is defective in first principles and logical precision, as well as
be marred by two misleading tendencies : one of excess attempting to carry
religion too much into the domain of science (for example, in the use made
of Goethe s Theory of Colours to explain some of the Old Testament symbols) ;
the other of defect viewing religion almost, if not altogether exclusively,
on the subjective side, which necessarily leads to certain meagre and arbi
trary explanations. Reference may possibly be made to some of them in
the sequel.
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 57
fulness of investigation. Klausen, in the following extract
from his Hermeneutik, pp. 334-345, has given a fair outline
of Olshausen s views : " We must distinguish between a false
and a genuine allegorical exposition, which latter has the sup
port of the highest authority, though it alone has it, being fre
quently employed by the inspired writers of the New Testament.
The fundamental error in the common allegorizing, from which
all its arbitrariness has sprung, bidding defiance to every sound
principle of exposition, must be sought in this, that a double
sense has been attributed to Scripture, and one of them conse
quently a sense entirely different from that which is indicated
by the words. Accordingly, the characteristic of the genuine
allegorical exposition must be, that it recognises no sense besides
the literal one none differing from this in nature, as from the
historical reality of what is recorded ; but only a deeper-lying
sense (vTrovoia), bound up with the literal meaning by an inter
nal and essential connection a sense given along with this and
in it ; so that it must present itself whenever the subject is
considered from the higher point of view, and is capable of being
ascertained by fixed rules. Hence, if the question be regarding
the fundamental principles, accordiiig to which the connection
must be made out between the deeper apprehension and the im
mediate sense conveyed by the words, these have their founda
tion in the law of general harmony, by which all individuals, in
the natural as well as in the spiritual world, form one great
organic system the law by which all phenomena, whether be
longing to a higher or a lower sphere, appear as copies of what
essentially belongs to their respective ideas ; so that the w r hole
is represented in the individual, and the individual again in the
whole. This mysterious relation comes most prominently out
in the history of the Jewish people and their worship. But
something analogous everywhere discovers itself ; and in the
manner in which the Old Testament is expounded in the New,
we are furnished with the rules for all exposition of the Word,
of nature, and of history."
The vague and unsatisfactory character of this mode of re
presentation, is evident almost at first sight ; the elements of
truth contained in it are neither solidly grounded nor sufficiently
guarded against abuse; so that, with some justice, Klausen
58 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
remarks, in opposition to it, " The allegorizing may perhaps be
applied with greater moderation and better taste than formerly;
but against the old principle, though revived as often as put
down, viz., that every sense which can be found in the words
has a right to be regarded as the sense of the words, the same
exceptions will always be taken." If the Typology of Scripture
cannot be rescued from the domain of allegorizings, it will be
impossible to secure for it a solid and permanent footing. It
cannot attain to this while coupled with allegorical licence, or
with a nearer and deeper sense. It is proper to add, that
Klausen himself has no place in his Hermeneutik for typical,
as distinguished from allegorical interpretations. In common
with Hermeneutical writers generally, he regards these as sub
stantially the same in kind ; and the one only as the excess of
the other. Some application he would allow of Old Testament
Scripture to the realities of the Gospel, in consideration of what
is said by inspired writers of the relation subsisting between the
two; but he conceives that relation to be of a kind which scarcely
admits of being brought to the test of historical truth, and that
the examples furnished of it in the New Testament arose from
necessity rather than from choice.
Later writers generally, however, on the Continent, who
have meditated with a profound and thoughtful spirit on the
history of the Divine dispensations, have shown a disposition to
tread in the footsteps of Olshausen rather than of Klausen.
And it cannot but be regarded as a striking exemplification of
the revolving cycles through which theological opinion is some
times found to pass, that after two centuries of speculation and
inquiry, a substantial return has been made by some of the
ablest of these divines though by diverse routes to the more
fundamental principles of the Cocceian school. It was charac
teristic of that school to contemplate the dispensations chiefly
from the divine point of view ; according to which, the end being
eyed from the beginning, the things pertaining to the end were
often, by a not unnatural consequence, made to throw back
their light too distinctly on those of the beginning, and the pro
gressive nature of the Divine economy was not sufficiently re
garded. It was further characteristic of the same school, that,
viewing everything in the scheme of God as planned with re-
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 59
fercncc to redemption, they were little disposed to discriminate
in this respect between one portion of the earlier things belonging
to it and another; wherever they could trace a resemblance,
there also they descried a type ; and everything in the history
as well as in the institutions of the Old Covenant, was brought
into connection with the realities of the Gospel. Now, these
two fundamental characteristics of Cocceianism, somewhat dif
ferently grounded, and still more differently applied, are pre
cisely those to which peculiar prominence is given in the writings
of such men as Hofmann, Kurtz, Lange, and others of the
present day. The first of these, in a work (Weissagung und
Erfullung, 1841-44) which, from its spirit of independent in
quiry, and the fresh veins of thought it not unfrequently opened
up, exerted an influence upon many who had no sympathy with
the doctrinal conclusions of the author, made even more of the
typical element in Old Testament history than was done by the
Cocceians. It is in the typical character of history, rather than
in the prophetic announcements which accompanied it, that he
would find the germ and presage of the future realities of the
Gospel : the history foreshadowed these ; the prophets, acting as
the men of superior discernment, simply perceived and inter
preted what was in the history. Therefore, to elevate the his
torical and depress the prophetical in Old Testament Scripture,
might be regarded as the general aim of Hofmann s under
taking ; yet only formally and relatively to do so : for, as ex
pressive of the religious state and development of the covenant
people, both were in reality depressed, and the sacred put much
on a level with the profane. This will sufficiently appear from
the following illustration : " Every triumphal procession which
passed through the streets of Rome was a prophecy of Augustus
Cassar ; for what he displayed through the whole of his career,
was here displayed by the triumphant general on his day of
honour, namely, the God in the man, Jupiter in the Roman
citizen. In the fact that Rome paid such honours to its vic
torious commanders, it pointed to the future, when it should
rule the world through the great emperor, to whom divine
honours would be paid." This he brings into comparison with
the allusion made in John xix. 36 to the ordinance respecting
the passover lamb, that a bone of it should not be broken ; and
60 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
then adds, " The meaning of the triumph was not fully realized
in the constantly recurring triumphal processions ; and so also
the meaning of the passover was not fully realized in the yearly
passovcr meals ; but the essential meaning of both was to be
fully developed at some future period, when the prophecy con
tained in them should also be fully confirmed" (I., p. 15). But
what, one naturally asks, did the prophecy in such cases amount
to ? It will scarcely be alleged, that even the most gifted
Roman citizen, who lived during the period of triumphal pro
cessions, could with any certainty have descried in these the
future possessor of the imperial throne. It could at the most
have been but a vague anticipation or probable conjecture, if
so much as that ; for, however the elevation of Augustus to that
dignity might, after the event actually occurred, have come to
be regarded u as the top-stone and culminating point in the
history," assuredly the better spirits of the commonwealth were
little disposed to long for such a culmination, or to think of it
beforehand as among the destinies of the future. It is only as
contemplated from the divine point of view, that the triumphal
procession could with any propriety be said to foreshadow the im
perial dignity, a point of view which the event alone rendered
it possible for men to apprehend ; and the so-called prophecy,
therefore, when closely considered and designated by its proper
name, was merely the divine purpose secretly moulding the
events which were in progress, and, through these, marching on
to its accomplishment. This, and nothing more (since Zion is
put on a footing with Rome) is the kind of prophecy which
Hofmann would find, and find exclusively, in the facts and
circumstances of Israelitish history. Because they in reality
culminated in the wonders of redemption, they might be said to
mark the progression of the Divine procedure toward that as its
final aim. But who could meanwhile conjecture that there was
any such goal in prospect 1 The prophets, it is affirmed, could
not rise above the movements of the current history ; not even
the seers, by way of eminence, could penetrate further into the
future than existing relations and occurrences might carry them.
What signified it, then, that a latent prophecy lay enwrapped
in the history ? There was no hand to remove the veil and
disclose the secret. The prophecy as such was known only in
MORE RECENT VIEWS. Gl
the heavenly sphere ; and the whole that could be found in the
human was some general conviction or vague hope that prin
ciples were at work, or a plan was in progress, which seemed
to be tending to loftier issues than had yet been reached.
This scheme of Hofmann is too manifestly an exaggeration
of a particular aspect of the truth to be generally accepted as
a just explanation of the whole ; by soaring too high in one
direction, fixing the eye too exclusively on the Divine side of
things, it leaves the human bereft of its proper significance and
value reduces it, in fact, to a rationalistic basis. Ilengsten-
berg has justly said of it, in the last edition of his Christology
(vol. iv., p. 389), that " by overthrowing prophecy, in the strict
sense, it necessarily involves acted prophecy (or type) in the
same fate ; and that it is nothing but an illusion to attempt to
elevate types at the expense of prophecy." Without, however,
attempting after this fashion to sacrifice the one of these for
the sake of the other, various theologians have sought to com-
O O
bine them, so as to make the one the proper complement of the
other two divinely-appointed factors in the production of a
common result, such as the necessities of the Church required.
Thus Kurtz (Hist, of Old Cov., Introd., 7, 8), while he con
tends for the proper function of prophecy, as having to do with
the future not less than the present, maintains that the history
also of the Old Covenant was prophetic, " both because it fore
shadows, and because it stands in living and continuous relation
to, the plan of salvation which was going to be manifested."
He thinks it belongs to prophecy alone to disclose, with requisite
freedom and distinctness, the connection between what at any
particular time was possessed and what was still wanted, or
between the fulfilments of promise already made and the ex
pectations which remained to be satisfied; but, in doing this,
prophecy serves itself of the history as not only providing the
occasion, but also containing the germ of what was to come.
He therefore holds that the sacred history possesses a typical
character, which appears prominently, continuously, markedly
in decided outlines, and in a manner patent not only to posterity,
but, by the assistance of prophecy, to contemporaries also, accord
ing to the measure that their spiritual capacity might enable
them to receive it. This character belongs alike to events, in-
62 THE ^TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
stitutions, and dispensations; but in what manner or to what
extent it is to be carried out in particular cases, nothing beyond
a few general lines have been indicated.
These views of the typical element contained in the history
and institutions of the Old Covenant, while they present certain
fundamental agreements with the principles of the Cocceian
school, have this also in common with it, that they take the need
for redemption the fall of man as the proper starting-point
alike for type and prophecy. But another and influential class
of theologians, having its representatives in this country as well
as on the Continent, has of late advanced a step further, and
holds that creation itself, and the state and circumstances of
man before as well as after the fall, equally possessed a typical
character, being from the outset inwrought with prophetic indi
cations of the person and kingdom of Christ. To this class
belong all who have espoused the position (not properly a new
one, for it is well known to have been maintained by some of
the scholastic divines), that the incarnation of Godhead in the
person of Christ was destined to take place irrespective of the
fall, and that the circumstances connected with this only deter
mined the specific form in which He was to appear, and the
nature of the work He had to do, but not the purpose itself of
a personal indwelling of Godhead in the flesh of man, which is
held to have been indispensable for the full manifestation of
the Divine character, and the perfecting of the idea of humanity.
The advocates of this view include Lange, Dorner, Liebner,
Ebrard, Martensen, with several others of reputation in Ger
many, and in this country, Dean Trench (in his Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge). Along with
these there are others in particular, Dr M Cosh, the late Hugh
Miller, also the late Mr M Donald of Edinkillie who, without
properly committing themselves to this view of the incarnation,
yet, on the ground of the analogy pervading the fields alike of
nature and redemption in respect to the prevalence of typical
forms, on this ground at least, more especially and peculiarly,
hold not less decidedly than the theologians above named, the
existence of a typical element in the original frame and consti
tution of things.
Such being the turn that later speculations upon this subject
MORE RECENT VIEWS. 63
have taken, it manifestly becomes necessary to examine all the
more carefully into the nature and properties of a type. We
must endeavour to arrive (if possible) at some definite ideas and
fundamental principles on the general subject, before entering
on the consideration of the particular modes of revelation by
type, which undoubtedly constitute the great mass of what in
Scripture is invested with such a character, and to which, with a
view to the right understanding and proper application of these,
our inquiry must be mainly directed.
CHAPTER SECOND.
THE PROPER NATURE AND PROVINCE OF TYPOLOGY. 1. SCRIP
TURAL USE OF THE WORD TYPE COMPARISON OF THIS
WITH THE THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS
OF A TYPICAL RELATIONSHIP, VIEWED WITH RESPECT TO
THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
THE language of Scripture being essentially popular, its use of
particular terms naturally partakes of the freedom and variety
which are wont to appear in the current speech of a people;
and it rarely if ever happens, that words are employed, in respect
to topics requiring theological treatment, with such precision and
uniformity as to enable us, from this source alone, to attain to
proper accuracy and fulness. The word type (TUTTO?) forms no
exception to this usage. Occurring once, at least, in the natural
sense of mark or impress made by a hard substance on one of
softer material (John xx. 25), it commonly bears the general
import of model) pattern, or exemplar, but with such a wide
diversity of application as to comprehend a material object of
worship, or idol (Acts vii. 43), an external framework constructed
for the service of God (Acts vii. 44, Heb. viii. 5), the form or
copy of an epistle (Acts xxiii. 25), a method of doctrinal instruc
tion delivered by the first heralds and teachers of the Gospel
(Rom. vi. 17), a representative character, or, in certain respects,
normal example (Rom. v. 14, 1 Cor. x. 11, Phil. iii. 17, 1 Thess.
i. 7, 1 Pet. v. 3). Such in New Testament Scripture is the
diversified use of the word type (disguised, however, under other
terms in the authorized version). It is only in the last of the
applications noticed, that it has any distinct bearing on the sub
ject of our present inquiry ; and this also comprises under it so
much of diversity, that if we were to draw our definition of a
type simply from the Scriptural use of the term, we could give
no more specific description of it than this a certain pattern or
exemplar exhibited in the position and character of some indivi-
NATURE OF A TYPE. 65
duals, to which others may or should be conformed. Adam stood,
we are told, in the relation of a type to the coming Messiah,
backsliding Israelites in their guilt and punishment to similar
characters in Christian times, faithful pastors to their flocks,
first converts to those who should afterwards believe, a mani
festly varied relationship, closer in some than in others, yet in
each implying a certain resemblance between the parties asso
ciated together; something in the one that admitted of being vir
tually reproduced in the other. Thus defined and understood, it
will be observed, also, that a type is no more peculiar to one dis
pensation than another. It is to be found now in the true pastor or
the exemplary Christian as well as formerly in Adam or in Israel;
and since believers generally are predestined to be conformed
to the image of Christ, he might, of course, be designated for all
times emphatically and pre-eminently the type of the Church.
But presented in this loose and general form, there is nothing
in the nature of a type that can be said to call for particular
investigation, or that may occasion material difference of opinion.
The subject involves only a few leading ideas, which are familiar
to every intelligent reader of Scripture, and which can prove of
small avail to the satisfactory explication of what is peculiar in
the history of the Divine dispensations. When, however, with
reference more to the subject itself than to the mere employ
ment of a particular word in connection with it, we pursue our
researches into the testimony of Scripture, we presently find
relations indicated between one class of things and another,
which, while the same in kind, perhaps, with those just noticed,
have yet distinctive features of their own, which call for thought
ful inquiry and discriminating treatment. These have already
to some extent come into consideration in the historical and
critical review that has been presented of past opinion (see p.
41 sq.). It is enough to refer here to such passages as Heb. ix.
24 where the holy places of the earthly tabernacle are called
the antitypes (avrirvTra) of the true or heavenly ; the latter, of
course, according to this somewhat peculiar phraseology, being
viewed as the types of the other : Heb. viii. 5 where the whole
structure of the tabernacle, with its appointed ritual of service, is
designated an example and shadow (uTroSej/y/za CTKIO) of heavenly
things: Ps. ex. 4; Heb. vi. 10-12, vii. where Melchizedek is
VOL. I. E
66 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
exalted over the ministering priesthood of that tabernacle, as
bearing in some important respects a still closer relationship to
Christ than was given them to occupy : 1 Pet. iii. 21 where
Christian baptism is denominated the antitype to the deluge,
and by implication the deluge is made the type of baptism :
Matt. ii. 15 ; Luke xxii. 16 ; 1 Cor. v. 7 ; John ii. 19, vi. 31-33 ;
1 Cor. x. 4 where Christ is in a manner identified with the
corporate Israel, the passover, the temple, the manna, the water-
giving rock. When reading these passages, and others of a like
description, our minds instinctively inquire what is the nature
of the connection indicated by them between the past and the
present in God s economy? Is it such as subsists between
things alike in principle, but diverse in form? between things
on the same spiritual level, or things rising from a lower to a
higher level ? Is the connection strictly the same in all, or does
it vary with the objects and parties compared ? What light is
thrown by the different elements entering into it upon the
revealed character of God, and the progressive condition of His
Church ? Can we discover in them the lines of a divine harmony
in the one respect, and of a human harmony in the other ? Such
are the questions which here naturally press on us for solution ;
and they are questions altogether occasioned by peculiarities in
preceding dispensations as compared with that of the Gospel.
The relation of the present to the still coming future which is
that simply of the initial to the terminal processes of the salva
tion already accomplished is of a much less complicated and
embarrassing kind, and can scarcely be said to give rise to
questions of the class now specified.
In another respect, however, substantially the same questions
arise namely, in connection with much that is indicated of the
anticipated future of the Christian Church, pointing, as it does,
even after Christian realities had come, to further developments
of the forms and relations of earlier times. For in the pro
spective delineations which are given us in Scripture respect
ing the final issues of Christ s kingdom among men, while the
foundation of all undoubtedly lies in the mediatorial work and
offices of Christ Himself, it still is through the characters,
ordinances, and events of the Old Covenant, not those of the
New (with the exception just specified), that the things to come
NATURE OF A TYPE. G7
are shadowed fortli to the eye of faith ; the forms of things in the
remote past have here also, it would seem, to find their proper
complement and destined realization. Thus, Israel still appears,
among the prophetic glimpses in question, with his twelve tribes,
his marvellous redemption, wilderness-sojourn, and rescued in
heritance (Matt. xix. 28 ; Rev. vii. 4-17, xii. 14, xv. 3) ; and
the tabernacle or temple, with its courts and sanctuaries, its
ark of testimony and cherubim of glory, its altars and offerings
(2 Thess. ii. 4;* Rev. iv. 7, 8, viii. 3, xi. 1, 2, xv. 6-8, xxi. 3);
and the ancient priesthood, with their linen robes and angel-like
service (Kev. iv. 4, xv. 6) ; Zion and Jerusalem, Babylon and
Euphrates, Sodom and Egypt (Heb. xii. 22 ; Rev. xi. 8, xiv.
1-8, xvi. 12, xxi. 2) ; and more remote still, especially when the
mystery of God in Christ is seen approaching its consummation,
paradise with its tree of life and rivers of gladness, its perennial
delights, and over all its heaven-crowned Lord, with the spouse
formed from Himself to share with Him in the glory, and yield
Him faithful service in the kingdom (Rev. ii. 7, vii. 17, xix. 7,
xxi. 9). No more, amid the anticipations of Christian faith and
hope, are we permitted to lose sight of the personages and
materials of the earlier dispensations, than in those which took
shape under &gt;re-Christian times.
Having respect, therefore, to the nature of the subject under
consideration, and the more peculiar difficulties attending it,
rather than to the infrequent and variable use of the word type
in Scripture, theologians have been wont to distinguish between
existing relationships (such as of a pastor to his people, or of
Christ to the heirs of His glory) and those which connect
together bygone with Christian times the things pertaining to
the Old with those pertaining to the New Covenant. The former
alone they have usually designated by the name of types, the
latter by that of antitypes. This mode of distinguishing by
theologians has been represented as an unwise departure from
Scriptural usage, and in itself necessarily fitted to mislead. 1 It
1 "We do not know what right divines have to construct a system" of
theological types, instead of a system of Scripture types. We are sure that
had they kept to the Scripture use of the term, instead of devising a theo
logical sense, they would have been saved from much extravagance, and
evolved much truth. 1 M Cosh, in " Typical Forms," p. 523.
68 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
admits, however, of a reasonable justification ; and to treat the
subject with anything like scientific precision and fulness, with
out determining after such a method the respective provinces of
type and antitype, would be found extremely inconvenient, if
not impracticable. The testimony of Scripture itself, when
fairly consulted, affords ground for the distinction indicated, in
a great measure apart from and beyond the application of the
specific terms. By adhering closely to its usage in respect to
these, and disregarding other considerations, one might readily
enough, indeed, present some popular illustrations, or throw off
a few general outlines of the typical field ; but to get at its more
distinctive characteristics, and explicate with some degree of
satisfaction the difficulties with which it invests, to our view,
the evolution of God s plan and ways, is a different thing, and
demands a greatly more exact and comprehensive line of investi
gation. The extravagance which has too often characterized
the speculations of divines upon the subject has arisen, not from
their devising a theological sense for the word type (which Scrip
ture itself might be said to force on them), but from their failure
to search out the fundamental principles involved in the whole
representations of Scripture, and to make a judicious and dis
criminating application of the light thence arising to the different
parts of the subject. 1
Understanding the word type, then, in the theological sense,
that is, conceiving its strictly proper and distinctive sphere to lie
in the relations of the old to the new, or the earlier to the later,
in God s dispensations, there are two things which, by general
consent, are held to enter into the constitution of a type. It is
held, first, that in the character, action, or institution which is
denominated the type, there must be a resemblance in form or
spirit to what answers to it under the Gospel; and secondly,
that it must not be any character, action, or institution occur
ring in Old Testament Scripture, but such only as had their
ordination of God, and were designed by Him to foreshadow
and prepare for the better things of the Gospel. For, as Bishop
Marsh has justly remarked, " to constitute one thing the type
of another, something more is wanted than mere resemblance.
1 The question, whether the things of creation should be formally treated
as typical, will be considered in Ch. IV.
NATURE OF A TYPE. 69
The former must not only resemble the latter, but must have
been designed to resemble the latter. It must have been so
designed in its original institution. It must have been designed
as something preparatory to the latter. The type as well as the
antitype must have been pre-ordained ; and they must have
been pre-ordained as constituent parts of the same general
scheme of Divine Providence. It is this previous design and
this pre-ordained connection [together, of course, with the resem
blance], which constitute the relation of type and antitype." 1
We insert, together with the resemblance; for, while stress is
justly laid on the previous design and pre-ordained connection,
the resemblance also forms an indispensable element in this
very connection, and is, in fact, the point that involves the more
peculiar difficulties belonging to the subject, and calls for the
closest investigation.
I. We begin, therefore, with the other point the previous
design and pre-ordained connection necessarily entering into the
relation between type and antitype. A relation so formed, and
subsisting to any extent between Old and New Testament things,
evidently presupposes and implies two important facts. It im
plies, first, that the realities of the Gospel, which constitute the
antitypes, are the ultimate objects which were contemplated by
the mind of God, when planning the economy of His successive
dispensations. And it implies, secondly, that to prepare the way
for the introduction of these ultimate objects, He placed the
Church under a course of training, which included instruction
by types, or designed and fitting resemblances of what was to
come. Both of these facts are so distinctly stated in Scripture,
and, indeed, so generally admitted, that it will be unnecessary
to do more than present a brief outline of the proof on which
they rest.
1. In regard to the first of the two facts, we find the desig
nation of " the ends of the world" applied in Scripture to the
Gospel-age; 2 and that not so much in respect to its posteriority
in point of time, as to its comparative maturity in regard to the
things of salvation the higher and better things having now
come, which had hitherto appeared only in prospect or existed
1 Marsh s Lectures, p. S71. 2 1 Cor. x. 11 ; Heb. xi. 40.
70 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
but in embryo. On the same account the Gospel dispensation
is called "the dispensation of the fulness of times;" 1 indicating,
that with it alone the great objects of faith and hope, which the
Church was from the first destined to possess, were properly
brought within her reach. Only with the entrance also of this
dispensation does the great mystery of God, in connection with
man s salvation, come to be disclosed, and the light of a new and
more glorious era at last breaks upon the Church. " The day-
spring from the height," in the expressive language of Zacharias,
then appeared, and made manifest what had previously been
wrapt in comparative obscurity, what had not even been distinctly
conceived, far less satisfactorily enjoyed. 2 Here, therefore, in
the sublime discoveries and abounding consolations of the Gos
pel, is the reality, in its depth and fulness, while in the earlier
endowments and institutions of the Church there was no more
than a shadowy exhibition and a partial experience ; 3 and as a
necessary consequence, the most eminent in spiritual light and
privilege before, were still decidedly inferior even to the less
distinguished members of the Messiah s kingdom. 4 In a word,
the blessed Kedeemer, whom the Gospel reveals, is Himself the
beginning and the end of the scheme of God s dispensations ;
in Him is found alike the centre of Heaven s plan, and the one
foundation of human confidence and hope. So that before His
coming into the world, all things of necessity pointed toward
1 Eph. i. 10.
2 Luke i. 78 ; 1 John ii. 8 ; Rom. xvi. 25, 26 ; Col. i. 27 ; 1 Cor. ii. 7, 10.
8 Col. ii. 17 ; Heb. viii. 5.
4 Matt. xi. 11, where it is said respecting John the Baptist, " notwith
standing he that is least (o fAixgoregos) in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he." The older English versions retained the comparative, and ren
dered "he that is less in the kingdom of heaven" (Wickliffe, Tyndale,
Cranmer, the Geneva) ; and so also Meyer in his Comm., " he who occupies
a proportionately lower place in the kingdom of heaven." Lightfoot, Heng-
stenberg, and many others, approve of this milder sense, as it may be called ;
but Alford in his recent commentary adheres still to the stronger, "the
least ;" and so does Stier in his Reden Jesu, who, in illustrating the thought,
goes so far as to say, " A mere child that knows the catechism, and can say
the Lord s prayer, both knows and possesses more than the Old Testament
can give, and so far stands higher and nearer to God than John the Bap
tist." One cannot but feel that this is putting something like a strain on
our Lord s declaration.
NATURE OF A TYPE. 71
Him ; types and prophecies bore testimony to the things that
concerned His work and kingdom ; the children of blessing were
blessed in anticipation of His promised redemption ; and with
His coming, the grand reality itself came, and the higher pur
poses of Heaven entered on their fulfilment. 1
2. The other fact presupposed and implied in the relation
between type and antitype, namely, that God subjected the
Church to a course of preparatory training, including instruc
tion by types, before He introduced the realities of His final
dispensation, is written with equal distinctness in the page of
inspiration. It is scarcely possible, indeed, to dissociate even in
idea the one fact from the other ; for, without such a course of
preparation being perpetually in progress, the long delay which
took place in the introduction of the Messiah s kingdom would
be quite inexplicable. Accordingly, the Church of the Old
Testament is constantly represented as having been in a state of
comparative childhood, supplied only with such means of instruc
tion, and subjected to such methods of discipline as were suited
to so imperfect and provisional a period of her being. Her law,
in its higher aim and object, was a schoolmaster to bring men
to Christ (Gal. iii. 24) ; and everything in her condition what
it wanted, as well as what it possessed, what was done for her,
and what remained yet to be done concurred in pointing the
way to Him who was to come with the better promises and the
perfected salvation (Heb. vii. viii. ix.). Such is the plain im
port of a great many scriptures bearing on the subject.
It is to be noted, however, in regard to this course of pre
paration, continued through so many ages, that everything in
the mode of instruction and discipline employed ought not to be
regarded as employed simply for the sake of those who lived
during its continuance. It was, no doubt, primarily introduced
on their account, and must have been wisely adapted to their
circumstances, as under preparation for better things to come.
But, at the same time, it must also, like the early training of a
well-educated youth, have been fitted to tell with beneficial effect
on the spiritual life of the Church in her more advanced state
of existence, after she had actually attained to those better things
1 Rev. i. 8 ; Luke ii. 25 ; Acts x. 43, iv. 12 ; Rom. iii. 25 ; 1 Pet. i.
10-12, 20.
72 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
themselves. The man of mature age, when pursuing his way
amid the perplexing cares and busy avocations of life, finds him
self continually indebted to the lessons he was taught and the
skill he has acquired during the period of his early culture.
And, in like manner, it was undoubtedly God s intention that.
His method of procedure toward the Church in her state of
minority, not only should minister what was needed for her im
mediate instruction and improvement, but should also furnish
materials of edification and comfort for believers to the end of
time. If the earlier could not be made perfect without the
things belonging to the later Church (Heb. xi. 40), so neither,
on the other hand, can the later profitably or even safely dis
pense with the advantage she may derive from the more simple
and rudimentary things that belonged to the earlier. The
Church, considered as God s nursery for training souls to a
meetness for immortal life and blessedness, is substantially the
same through all periods of her existence ; and the things which
were appointed for the behoof of her members in one age, had
in them also something of lasting benefit for those on whom the
ends of the world are come (1 Cor. x. 6, 11).
It is farther to be noted, that in this work of preparation for
the more perfect future, arrangements of a typical kind, being
of a somewhat recondite nature, necessarily occupied a relative
and subsidiary, rather than the primary and most essential place.
The Church enjoyed from the first the benefit of direct and ex
plicit instruction, imparted either immediately by the hand of
God, or through the instrumentality of His accredited messen
gers. From this source she always derived her knowledge of
the more fundamental truths of religion, and also her more
definite expectations of the better things to come. The fact is
of importance, both as determining the proper place of typical
acts and institutions, and as indicating a kind of extraneous and
qualifying element, that must not be overlooked in judging of
the condition of believers under them. Yet they were not, on
that account, rendered less valuable or necessary as constituent
parts of a preparatory dispensation ; for it was through them,
as temporary expedients, and by virtue of the resemblances they
possessed to the higher things in prospect, that the realities of
Christ s kingdom obtained a kind of present realization to the
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 73
eye of faith. What, then, was the nature of these resemblances .
Wherein precisely did the similarity which formed more especially
the preparatory elements in the Old, as compared with the New,
really lie? This is tke point that mainly calls for elucidation.
II. It is the second point we were to investigate, as being
that which would necessarily require the most lengthened and
careful examination. And the general statement we submit
respecting it is, that two things were here essentially necessary :
there must have been in the Old the same great elements of truth a*
in the things they represented under the New ; and then, in the
Old, these must have been exhibited in a form more level to the
comprehension } more easily and distinctly cognizable by the minds
of men.
1. There must have been, first, the same great elements of
truth, for the mind of God, and the circumstances of the fallen
creature, are substantially the same at all times. What the
spiritual necessities of men now are, they have been from the
time that sin entered into the world. Hence the truth revealed
by God to meet these necessities, however varying from time to
time in the precise amount of its communications, and however
differing also in the external form under which it might be pre
sented, must have been, so far as disclosed, essentially one in
every age. For, otherwise, what anomalous results would follow!
If the principles unfolded in God s communications to men, and
on which he regulates His dealings toward them, were materially
different at one period from what they are at another, then either
the w r ants and necessities of men s natural condition must have
undergone a change, or these being the same, as they un
doubtedly are the character of God must have altered He
cannot be the immutable Jehovah. Besides, the very idea of a
course of preparatory dispensations were, on the supposition in
question, manifestly excluded; since that could have had no
proper ground to rest on, unless there was a deep-rooted and
fundamental agreement between what was merely provisional and
what was final and ultimate in the matter. The primary and
essential elements of truth, therefore, which are embodied in the
facts of the Gospel, and on which its economy of grace is based,
cannot, in the nature of things, be of recent origin as if they
74 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
were altogether peculiar to the New Testament dispensation, and
had only begun with the entrance of it to obtain a place in the
government of God. On the contrary, their existence must
have formed the groundwork, and their varied manifestation the
progress, of any preparatory dispensations that might be ap
pointed. And whatever ulterior respect the typical characters,
actions, or institutions of those earlier dispensations might carry
to the coming realities of the Gospel, their more immediate
intention and use must have consisted in the exhibition they gave
of the vital and fundamental truths common alike to all dispen
sations.
2. If a clear and conclusive certainty attaches to this part of
our statement, it does so in even an increased ratio to the other.
Holding that the same great elements of truth must of necessity
pervade both type and antitype, we must also assuredly believe,
that in the former they were more simply and palpably exhibited
presented in some shape in which the human mind could more
easily and distinctly apprehend them than in the latter. It
would manifestly have been absurd to admit into a course of
preparation for the realities of the Gospel, certain temporary
exhibitions of the same great elements of truth that were to per
vade these, unless the preparatory had been of more obvious
meaning, and of more easy comprehension, than the ultimate and
final. The transition from the one to the other must clearly
have involved a rise in the mode of exhibiting the truth from a
lower to a higher territory from a form of development more
easily grasped, to a form which should put the faculties of the
mind to a greater streteh. For thus only could it be wise or
proper to set up preparatory dispensations at all. These, mani
festly, had been better spared, if the realities themselves lay
more, or even so much, within the reach and comprehension of
the mind, as their temporary and imperfect representations.
Standing, then, on the foundation of these two principles, as
necessarily forming the essential elements of the resemblance
that subsisted between the Old and the New in God s dispensa
tions, we may now proceed to consider how far they can legiti
mately carry us in explaining the subject in hand ; or, in other
words, to answer the question, how on such a basis the typical
things of the past could properly serve as preparatory arrange-
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 75
merits for the higher and better things of the future ? We shall
endeavour to answer this question, in the first instance, by mak
ing application of our principles to the symbolical institutions of
the Mosaic dispensation, which are usually denominated the ritual
or legal types. For, in respect to these we have the advantage of
the most explicit assertion in Scripture of their typical character ;
and we are also furnished with certain general descriptions of
their nature as typical, which may partly serve as lights to direct
our inquiries, and partly provide a test by which to try the cor
rectness of our results.
Now, viewing the institutions of the dispensation brought in
by Moses as typical, we look at them in what may be called their
secondary aspect ; we consider them as prophetic symbols of the
letter things to come in the Gospel. But this evidently implies,
that in another and more immediate respect they were merely
symbols, that is, outward and sensible representations of Divine
truth, in connection with an existing dispensation and a religious
worship. It was only from their being this, in the one respect,
that they could, in the other, be prophetic symbols, or types, of
what was afterwards to appear under the Gospel ; on the ground
already stated, that the preparatory dispensation to which they
belonged was necessarily inwrought with the same great elements
of truth which were afterwards, in another form, to pervade the
Christian. Had there not been the identity in the truths here
supposed, assimilating amid all outward diversities the two dis
pensations in spirit to each other, the earlier would rather have
blocked up, than prepared and opened, the way for the latter.
A partial exhibition of a truth, or an embodiment of it in things
comparatively little, easily grasped by the understanding, and
but imperfectly satisfying the mind, may certainly make way for
its exhibition in a manner more fully adapted to its proper
nature : The mind thus familiarized to it in the little, may both
have the desire created, and the capacity formed for beholding
its development in things of a far higher and nobler kind. But
a partial or defective representation of an object, apart from any
principles common to both, must rather tend to pre-occupy the
mind, and either entirely prevent it from anticipating, or fill it
with mistaken and prejudiced notions of, the reality. If such a
representation of the mere objects of the Gospel had been all
76 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
that was aimed at in the symbolical institutions of the Old Testa
ment if their direct, immediate, and only use had been to serve,
as pictures, to prefigure and presentiate to the soul the future
realities of the divine kingdom then who could wonder if these
realities should have been wholly lost sight of before, or misbe
lieved and repudiated when they came ? For, in that case, the
preparatory dispensation must have been far more difficult for
the worshipper than the ultimate one. The child must have had
a much harder lessen to read, and a much higher task to acccom-
plish, than the man of full-grown and ripened intellect. And
Divine wisdom must have employed its resources, not to smooth
the Church s path to an enlightened view and a believing re
ception of the realities of the Gospel, rather but to shroud them
in the most profound and perplexing obscurities.
Every serious and intelligent believer will shrink from this
conclusion. But if he does so, he will soon find that there is
only one way of effectually escaping from it ; and that is, by re
garding the symbolical institutions of the Old Covenant as not
simply or directly representations of the realities of the Gospel,
but in the first instance as parts of an existing dispensation, and,
as such, expressive of certain great and fundamental truths,
which could even then be distinctly understood and embraced.
This was what might be called their more immediate and osten
sible design. Their further and prospective, reference to the
higher objects of the Gospel, was of a more indirect and occult
nature ; and stood in the same essential truths being exhibited
by means of present and visible, but inferior and comparatively
inadequate objects. So that in tracing out the connection from
the one to the other, we must always begin with inquiring, What,
per se, was the native import of each symbol ? What truths did
it symbolize merely as part of an existing religion ? and from
this proceed to unfold how it was fitted to serve as a guide and
a stepping-stone to the glorious events and issues of Messiah s
kingdom. This which it was the practice of the elder typolo
gical writers in great measure to overlook is really the founda
tion of the whole matter ; and without it every typological system
must either contract itself within very narrow bounds, or be in
danger of running out into superficial or fanciful analogies.
The Mosaic ritual had at once a shell and a kernel, its shell,
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 77
the outward rites and observances it enjoined ; its kernel, the
spiritual relations which these indicated, and the spiritual truths
which they embodied and expressed. Substantially, these truths
and relations were, and must have been, the same for the Old
that they are for the New Testament worshippers; for the
spiritual wants and necessities of both are the same, and so also
is the character of God, with whom they have to do. There,
therefore, in that fundamental agreement, that internal and
pre-established harmony of principle, we are to find the bond of
union between the symbolical institutions of Judaism and the
permanent realities of Messiah s kingdom. One truth in both
but that truth existing first in a lower, then in a higher stage
of development ; in the one case appearing as a precious bud
embosomed and but partially seen amid the imperfect relations
of flesh and time ; in the other expanding itself under the bright
sunshine of heaven into all the beauty and fruitfulness of which
it was susceptible.
To make our meaning perfectly understood, however, we
must descend from the general to the particular, and apply what
has been stated to a special case. In doing so, we shall go at
once to what may justly be termed the very core of the religion
of the Old Covenant the rite of expiatory sacrifice. That this
was typically or prophetically symbolical of the death of Christ,
is testified with much plainness and frequency in New Testament
Scripture. Yet, independently of this connection with Christ s
death, it had a meaning of its own, which it was possible for the
ancient worshipper to understand, and, so understanding, to pre
sent through it an acceptable service to God, whether he might
perceive or not the further respect it bore to a dying Saviour.
It was in its own nature a symbolical transaction, embodying a
threefold idea : first, that the worshipper, having been guilty of
sin, had forfeited his life to God ; then, that the life so forfeited
must be surrendered to Divine justice ; and finally, that being
surrendered in the way appointed, it was given back to him again
by God, or he became re-established, as a justified person, in the
Divine favour and fellowship. How far a transaction of this
kind, done symbolically and not really by means of an irrational
creature substituted in the sinner s room, and unconsciously de
voted to lose its animal in lieu of his intelligent and rational
78 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
life might commend itself as altogether satisfactory to his view ;
or how far he might see reason to regard it as but a provisional
arrangement, proceeding on the contemplation of something
more perfect yet to come ; these are points which might justly
be raised, and will indeed call for future discussion, but they
are somewhat extraneous to the subject itself now under con
sideration. We are viewing the rite of expiatory sacrifice simply
as a constituent part of ancient worship, a religious service
which formally, and without notification from itself of anything
farther being required, presented the sinner with the divinely
appointed means of reconciliation and restored fellowship with
God. In this respect it symbolically represented, as we have
said, a threefold idea, which if properly understood and realized
by the worshipper, he performed, in offering it, an acceptable
service. And when we rise from the symbolical to the typical
view of the transaction when we proceed to consider the rite
of expiation as bearing a prospective reference to the redemp
tion of Christ, we are not to be understood as ascribing to it
some new sense or meaning ; we merely express our belief that
the complex capital idea which it so impressively symbolized,
finds its only true, as from the first its destined realization, in
the work of salvation by Jesus Christ. For in Him alone was
there a real transference of man s guilt to one able and willing
to bear it ; in His death alone, the surrender of a life to God,
such as could fitly stand in the room of that forfeited by the
sinner ; and in faith alone on that death, a full and conscious
appropriation of the life of peace and blessing obtained by Him
for the justified. So that here only it is we perceive the idea
of a true, sufficient, and perfect sacrifice converted into a living
reality such as the holy eye of God, and the troubled con
science of man, can alike repose in with unmingled satisfaction.
And while there appear precisely the same elements of truth in
the ever-recurring sacrifices of the Old Testament, and in the
one perfect sacrifice of the New, it is seen, at the same time,
that what the one symbolically represented, the other actually
possessed ; what the one could only exhibit as a kind of acted
lesson for the present relief of guilty consciences, the other
makes known to us, as a work finally and for ever accomplished
for all who believe in the propitiation of the cross.
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 79
The view now given of the symbolical institutions of the
Old Testament, as prophetic symbols of the realities of the Gos
pel, is in perfect accordance with the general descriptions we
have of their nature in Scripture itself. These are of two classes.
In the one they are declared to have been shadovjs of the better
things of the Gospel ; as in Ileb. x. 1, where the law is said to
have had " a shadow, and not the very image of good things to
come;" in ch. viii. 5, where the priests are described as "serv
ing unto the example (copy) and shadow of heavenly things;"
and again in Col. ii. 16, where the fleshly ordinances in one
mass are denominated " shadows of good things to come," while
it is added, " the body is of Christ." Now, that the tabernacle,
with the ordinances of every kind belonging to it, were shadows
of Christ and the blessings of His kingdom, can only mean that
they were obscure and imperfect resemblances of these ; or that
they embodied the same elements of Divine truth, but wanted
what was necessary to give them proper form and consistence
as parts of a final and abiding dispensation of God. And when
we go to inquire wherein did the obscurity and imperfection
consist, we are always referred to the carnal and earthly nature
of the Old as compared with the New. The tabernacle itself
was a material fabric, constructed of such things as this present
world could supply, and hence called " a worldly sanctuary ;"
while its counterpart under the Gospel is the eternal region of
God s presence and glory, neither discernible by fleshly eye, nor
made by mortal hands. In like manner, the ordinances of wor
ship connected with the tabernacle were all ostensibly directed
to the preservation of men s present existence, or the advance
ment of their well-being as related to an outward sanctuary and
a terrestrial commonwealth ; while in the Gospel it is the soul s
relation to the sanctuary above, and its possession of an immor
tal life of blessedness and glory, which all is directly intended
to provide for. In these differences between the Old and the
New, which bespeak so much of inferiority on the part of the
former, we perceive the darkness and imperfection which hung
around the things of the ancient dispensation, and rendered them
shadows only of those which were to come. But still shadows
are resemblances. Though unlike in one respect, they must be
like in another. And as the unlikeness stood in the dissimilar
80 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
nature of the things immediately handled and perceived in the
different materiel, so to speak, of the two dispensations, wherein
should the resemblance be found but in the common truths and
relations alike pervading both ? By means of an earthly taber
nacle, with its appropriate services, God manifested toward His
people the same principles of government, and required from
them substantially the same disposition and character, that He
does now under the higher dispensation of the Gospel. For
look beyond the mere outward diversities, and what do you see ?
You see in both alike a pure and holy God, enshrined in the
recesses of a glorious sanctuary, unapproachable by sinful flesh
but through a medium of powerful intercession and cleansing
efficacy ; yet when so approached, ever ready to receive and
bless with the richest tokens of His favour and loving-kindness
as many as come in the exercise of genuine contrition for sin,
and longing for restored fellowship with Him whom they have
offended. The same description applies equally to the service
of both dispensations ; for in both the same impressions are con
veyed of God s character respecting sin and holiness, and the
same gracious feelings necessarily aw r akened by them in the
bosom of sincere worshippers. But then, as to the means of
accomplishing this, there was only, in the one case, a shadowy
exhibition of spiritual things through earthly materials and tem
porary expedients ; while in the other, the naked realities appear
in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ, the rich endowments of
the Spirit of grace, and the glories of an everlasting kingdom.
The other general description given in New Testament Scrip
ture of the prophetic symbols or types of the Old dispensation
does not materially differ from the one now considered, and,
when rightly understood, leads to the same result. According to
it, the religious institutions of earlier times contained the rudiments
or elementary principles of the world s religious truth and life.
Thus in Col. ii. 20, the now antiquated ordinances of Judaism
are called " the rudiments of the world ;" and in Gal. iv. 3, the
Church, while under these ordinances, is said to have been " in
bondage under the elements (or rudiments) of the world." The
expression, also, which is found in ch. iii. 24 of this Epistle to
the Galatians, " the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ," conveys much the same idea ; since it is the special
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 81
business of a schoolmaster to communicate to those under his
charge the rudiments of learning, by which their minds may in
due time be prepared for the higher walks of science and litera
ture. The law certainly did this, to a considerable extent, by
direct instructions in the great principles of truth and duty. But
it did so not less by means of its symbolical institutions and
ordinances, which were in themselves inherently defective, and
yet in their spirit and design entirely analogous to the higher
things of the Gospel. The animal, the fleshly, the material, the
temporal, was what alone appeared in them, when viewed in
respect merely to their ostensible character and object ; yet all
was arranged in a manner fitted to exhibit ideas and relations
that reached far beyond these, and could only, indeed, find their
suitable development in things spiritual, heavenly, and eternal.
The Church had then to be dealt with after the manner of a
child. But the child must have instruction administered to him
in a form adapted to his juvenile capacities. If he is to be
prepared for apprehending the outlines and proportions of the
globe, these must be presented to his view on diagrams of a few
spans long. Or, if he is to be made acquainted with the laws
and principles which bear sway throughout the material universe,
he must again see them exemplified in miniature among the
small and familiar objects of everyday life. In like manner, the
Church of the Old Testament, while in bondage to fleshly insti
tutions and services, yet received through these the rudiments
of all Divine truth and wisdom. In a form which the eye of a
spiritual babe could scan, and its hand, in a manner, grasp,
she had constantly exhibited before her the essential truths and
principles of God s everlasting kingdom. And nothing more
was needed than that the instruction thus imparted should have
been impartially received and properly cultivated, in order to
fit the disciple of Moses for passing with intelligence and delight
from his rudimental tutelage, under the shadows of good tilings,
into the free use and enjoyment of the things themselves.
The general descriptions, then, given of the symbolical insti
tutions and services of the Old Testament, in their relation to the
Gospel, perfectly accord with the principles we have advanced.
And view r ed in the light now presented, we at once see the
essential unity that subsists between the Old and the New dis-
VOL. I. F
82 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
pensations, and the nature of that progression in the Divine plan
which rendered the one a fitting preparation and stepping-stone
to the other. In its fundamental elements the religion of both
covenants is thus found to be identical. Only it appears under
the Old covenant as on a lower platform, disclosing its ideas, and
imparting its blessings through the imperfect instrumentalities
of fleshly relations and temporal concerns ; while under the New
everything rises heavenwards, and eternal realities come distinctly
and prominently into view. But as ideas and relations are more
palpable to the mind, and lie more within the grasp of its com
prehension, when exhibited on a small scale, in corporeal forms,
amid familiar and present objects, than on a scale of large dimen
sions, which stretches into the unseen, and embraces alike the
Divine and human, time and eternity ; so the economy of outward
symbolical institutions was in itself simpler than the Gospel, and,
as a lower exhibition of Divine truth, prepared the way for a
higher. But they did this, let it be observed, in their character
merely as symbolical institutions, or parts of a dispensation then
existing, not as typically foreshadowing the things belonging to
a higher and more spiritual dispensation yet to come. It was
comparatively an easy thing for the Jewish worshipper to under
stand how, from time to time, he stood related to a visible sanc
tuary and an earthly inheritance, or to go through the process of
an appointed purification by means of water and the blood of
slain victims applied externally to his body : much more easy
than for the Christian to apprehend distinctly his relation to a
heavenly sanctuary, and realize the cleansing of his conscience
from all guilt by the inward application of the sacrifice of Christ
and the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit. But for the
Jewish worshipper to do both his own and the Christian s part
both to read the meaning of the symbol as expressive of what
was already laid open to his view, and to descry its concealed
reference to the yet undiscovered realities of a better dispensa
tion, would have required a reach of discernment and a strength
of faith far beyond what is now needed in the Christian. For
this had been, not like him to discern the heavenly, when the
heavenly had come, but to do it amid the obscurities and imper
fections of the earthly ; not simply to look with open eye into
the deeper mysteries of God s kingdom, when these mysteries
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 83
are fully disclosed, but to do so while they were still buried amid
the thick folds of a cumbrous and overshadowing drapery.
Yet let us not be mistaken. We speak merely of what was
strictly required, and what might ordinarily be expected of the
ancient worshipper, in connection with the institutions and ser
vices of his symbolical religion, taken simply by themselves.
We do not say that there never was, much less that there could
not be, any proper insight obtained by the children of the Old
Covenant into the future mysteries of the Gospel. There were
special gifts of grace then, as well as now, occasionally imparted
to the more spiritual members of the covenant, which enabled
them to rise to unusual degrees of knowledge ; and it is a dis
tinctive property of the spiritual mind generally to be dissatisfied
with the imperfect, to seek and long for the perfect. Even
now, when the comparatively perfect has come, what spiritual
mind is not often conscious to itself of a feeling akin to melan
choly, when it thinks of the yet abiding darkness and disorders
of the present, or does not fondly cling to every hopeful indica
tion of a brighter future ? But even the best things of the Old
Covenant bore on them the stamp of imperfection. The temple
itself, which was the peculiar glory and ornament of Israel, still
in a very partial and defective manner realized its own grand
idea of a people dwelling with God, and God dwelling with
them ; and hence, because of that inherent imperfection (it was
plainly declared), a higher and better mode of accomplishing
the object should one day take its place. (Jer. iii. 16, 17.) So,
too, the palpable disproportion already noticed in the rite of
expiatory sacrifice between the rational life forfeited through
sin, and the merely animal life substituted in its room, seemed
to proclaim the necessity of a more adequate atonement for
human guilt, and could not but dispose intelligent worshippers
to give more earnest heed to the announcements of prophecy
regarding the coming purposes of Heaven. But yet, when we
have admitted all this, it by no means follows that the people of
God generally, under the Old Covenant, could attain to very
definite views of the realities of the Gospel ; nor does it furnish
us with any reason for asserting that such views must ever of
necessity have mingled with the service of an acceptable wor
shipper. For his was the worship of a preparatory dispensation.
84 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
It must, therefore, have been simpler and easier than what was
ultimately to supplant it. And this, we again repeat, it could
only be by being viewed in its more obvious and formal aspect,
as the worship of an existing religion, which provided for the
time then present a fitting medium of access to God, and hal
lowed intercourse with heaven. The man who humbly availed
himself of what was thus provided to meet his soul s necessities,
stood in faith, and served God with acceptance, though still
with such imperfections in the present, and such promises for
the future, that the more always he reflected, he would become
the more a child of desire and hope. 1
We have spoken as yet only of the symbolical institutions
and services of the Old Testament ; and of these quite generally,
as one great whole. For it is carefully to be noted, that the
Scriptural designations of rudiments and shadows, which we have
shown to be the same as typical, when properly understood, are
applied to the entire mass of the ancient ordinances in their
prospective reference to Gospel realities. And yet, while New
Testament Scripture speaks thus of the whole, it deals very
sparingly in particular examples ; and if it furnishes, in its
language and allusions, many valuable hints to direct inquiry, it
still contains remarkably few detailed illustrations. It nowhere
1 If any one will take the trouble to look into the elder writers, who
formally examined the typical character of the ancient symbolical institu
tions, he will find them entirely silent in regard to the points chiefly dwelt
upon in the above discussion. Lowman, for example, on the Rational of
the Hebrew Worship, and Outram de Sac., Lib. i., c. 18, where he comes to
consider the nature and force of a type, gave no proper or satisfactory
explanation of the questions, wherein precisely did the resemblance stand
between the type and the antitype, or how should the one have prepared
the way for the other. We are told frequently enough that the u Hebrew
ritual contained a plan, or sketch, or pattern, or shadow of Gospel things : "
that " the type adumbrated the antitype by something of the same sort with
that which is found in the antitype," or " by a symbol of it," or " by a
slender and shadowy image of it," or " by something that may somehow be
compared with it," etc. But we look in vain for anything more specific.
Townley, in his Reasons of the Laws of Moses, still advances no farther
in the Dissertation he devotes to the Typical Character of the Mosaic Insti
tutions. Even Olshausen, in the treatise formerly noticed (Ein Wort iiber
tiefern Schriftsinn), when he comes to unfold what he calls his deeper
exposition, confines himself to a brief illustration of the few general state
ments formerly mentioned. See p. 46.
NATURE OF RITUAL TYPES. 85
tells us, for example, what was either immediately symbolized,
or prophetically shadowed forth, by the Holy Place in the
tabernacle, or the shew-bread, or the golden candlestick, or the
ark of the covenant, or, indeed, by anything connected with the
tabernacle, excepting its more prominent offices and ministra
tions. Even the Epistle to the Hebrews, which enters with such
comparative fulness into the connection between the Old and the
New, and which is most express in ascribing a typical value to
all that belonged to the tabernacle, can yet scarcely be said to
give any detailed explanation of its furniture and services beyond
the rite of expiatory sacrifice, and the action of the high priest in
presenting it, more particularly on the great day of atonement.
So that those who insist on an explicit warrant and direction
from Scripture in regard to each particular type, will find their
principle conducts them but a short way even through that
department, which, they are obliged to admit, possesses through
out a typical character. A general admission of this sort can
be of little use, if one is restrained on principle from touching
most of the particulars ; one might as well maintain that these
stood entirely disconnected from any typical property. So,
indeed, Bishop Marsh has substantially done ; for, " that such
explanations," he says, referring to particular types, " are in
various instances given in the New Testament, no one can deny.
And if it was deemed necessary to explain one type, where could
be the expediency or moral fitness of withholding the explana
tion of others ? Must not, therefore, the silence of the New
Testament in the case of any supposed type, be an argument
against the existence of that type?" Undoubtedly, we reply,
if the Scriptures of the New Testament professed to illustrate
the whole field of typical matter in God s ancient dispensations ;
but by no means if, as is really the case, they only take it up in
detached portions, by way of occasional example ; and still less
if the effect would be practically to exclude from the character
of types many of the very institutions and services which are
declared to have been all " shadows of good things to come,
whereof the body is Christ." How we ought to proceed in
applying the general views that have been unfolded to the
interpretation of such parts of the Old Testament symbols as
1 Lectures, p. 392.
86 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
have not been explained in New Testament Scripture, will no
doubt require careful consideration. But that we are both
warranted and bound to give them a Christian interpretation, is
manifest from the general character that is ascribed to them.
And the fact that so much of what was given to Moses as " a
testimony (or evidence) of those things which were to be spoken
after" in Christ, remains without any particular explanation in
Scripture, sufficiently justifies us in expecting that there may
also be much that is typical, though not expressly declared to be
such, in the other, the historical department of the subject,
which we now proceed to investigate.
CHAPTER THIRD.
THE PROPER NATURE AND PROVINCE OF TYPOLOGY 2. THE
HISTORICAL CHARACTERS AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT, VIEWED AS EXEMPLIFYING THE DISTINCTIVE
CHARACTERS OF A TYPICAL RELATIONSHIP TYPICAL FORMS
IN NATURE NECESSITY OF THE TYPICAL AS A PREPARA
TION FOR THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULNESS OF TIMES.
IN the preceding chapter we have seen in what sense the reli
gious institutions and services of the Old Covenant were typical.
They were constructed and arranged so as to express symbolically
the great truths and principles of a spiritual religion truths and
principles which were common alike to Old and New Testament
times, but which, from the nature of things, could only find in
the New their proper development and full realization. On the
limited scale of the earthly and perishable in the construction
of a material tabernacle, and the suitable adjustment of bodily
ministrations and sacrifical offerings, there was presented a
palpable exhibition of those great truths respecting sin and
salvation, the purification of the heart, and the dedication of
the person and the life to God, which in the fulness of time
were openly revealed and manifested on the grand scale of a
world s redemption, by the mediation and work of Jesus Christ.
In that pre-arranged and harmonious, but still inherently de
fective and imperfect, exhibition of the fundamental ideas and
spiritual relations of the Gospel, stood the real nature of its
typical character.
Nor, we may add, was there anything arbitrary in so em
ploying the things of flesh and time to shadow forth, under a
preparatory dispensation, the higher realities of God s everlasting
kingdom. It has its ground and reason in the organic arrange
ments or appearances of the material world. For these are so
framed as to be ever giving forth representations of Divine truth,
and are a kind of ceaseless regeneration, in which, through
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
successive stages, new and higher forms of being are continually
springing out of the lower. It is on this constitution of nature
that the figurative language of Scripture is based. And it was
only building on a foundation that already existed, and which
stretches far and wide through the visible territory of creation,
when the outward relations and fleshly services of a symbolical
religion were made to image and prepare for the more spiritual
and divine mysteries of Messiah s kingdom. Hence, also, some
of the more important symbolical institutions were expressly
linked (as we shall see) to appropriate seasons and aspects of
nature.
But was symbol alone thus employed ? Might there not also
have been a similar employment of many circumstances and
transactions in the province of sacred history ? If the revela
tion of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the blessings of His great
salvation, was the object mainly contemplated by God from the
beginning of the world, and with which the Church was ever
travailing as in birth if, consequently, the previous dispensa
tions were chiefly designed to lead to, and terminate upon,
Christ and the things of His salvation, what can be more
natural than to suppose that the evolutions of Providence
throughout the period during which the salvation was in pro
spect, should have concurred with the symbols of worship in
imaging and preparing for what was to come ? It is possible,
indeed, that the connection here, between the past and the
future, might be somewhat more varied and fluctuating, and
in several respects less close and exact, than in the case of a
regulated system of symbolical instruction and worship, ap
pointed to last till it was superseded by the better things of the
New dispensation. This is only what might be expected from
the respective natures of the subjects compared. But that a
connection, similar in kind, had a place in the one as well as in
the other, we hold to be not only in itself probable, but also
capable of being satisfactorily established. And for the purpose
of showing this we lay down the following positions : First,
That the historical relations and circumstances recorded in the
Old Testament, and typically applied in the New, had very
much both the same resemblances and defects in respect to the
realities of the Gospel, which we have found to belong to the
HISTORICAL TYPES. 89
ancient symbolical institutions of worship ; secondly, that such
historical types were absolutely necessary, in considerable num
ber and variety, to render the earlier dispensations thoroughly
preparative in respect to the coming dispensation of the Gospel ;
and, thirdly, that Old Testament Scripture itself contains un
doubted indications, that much of its historical matter stood
related to some higher ideal, in which the truths and relations
exemplified in them were again to meet and receive a new but
more perfect development.
I. The first consideration is, that the historical relations and
circumstances recorded in the Old Testament, and typically
interpreted in the New, had very much the same resemblances
and defects, in respect to the Gospel, which we have found to
belong to the ancient symbolical institutions of worship. Thus
to refer to one of the earliest events in the world s history so
interpreted the general deluge that destroyed the old world, and
preserved Noah and his family alive, is represented as standing
in atypical relation to Christian baptism (1 Pet. iii. 21). It did
so, as will be explained more at large hereafter, from its having
destroyed those who by their corruptions destroyed the earth,
and saved for a new world the germ of a better race. Doing
this in the outward and lower territory of the world s history,
it served substantially the same purpose that Christian baptism
does in a higher; since this is designed to bring the individual
that receives it under those vital influences that purge away the
corruption of a fleshly nature, and cause the seed of a divine life
to take root and grow for the occupation of a better inheritance.
In like manner Sarah, with her child of promise, the special and
peculiar gift of heaven, and Hagar, with her merely natural and
fleshly offspring, are explained as typically foreshadowing, the
one a spiritual church, bringing forth real children to God, in
spirit and destiny as well as in calling, the heirs of His everlast
ing kingdom ; the other, a worldly and corrupt church, whose
members are in bondage to the flesh, having but a name to live,
while they are dead. (Gal. iv. 22, 31.) In such cases, it is
clear that the same kind of resemblances, coupled also with the
same kind of differences, appear between the preparatory and
the final, as in the case of the symbolical types. For here also
90 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the ideas and relations are substantially one in the two asso
ciated transactions ; only in the earlier they appear ostensibly
connected with the theatre of an earthly existence, and with
respect to seen and temporal results ; while in the later it is
the higher field of grace and the interests of a spiritual and
immortal existence that come directly into view.
Or, let the use be considered that is made of the events
which befell the Israelites on their way to the land of Canaan, as
regards the state and prospects of the Church of the New Tes
tament on its way to heaven. Look at this, for example, as
unfolded in the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, and the essential features of a typical connection will
at once be seen. For the exclusion of those carnal and unbe
lieving Israelites who fell in the wilderness is there exhibited,
not only as affording a reasonable presumption, but as providing
a valid ground, for asserting that persons similarly affected now
toward the kingdom of glory cannot attain to heaven. Indeed,
so complete in point of principle is the identity of the two cases,
that the same expressions are applied to both alike, without
intimation of any differences existing between them : " the
Gospel is preached" to the one class as well as to the other ;
God gives to each alike " a promise of rest," while they equally
"fall through unbelief," having hardened their hearts against
the word of God. Yet there were the same differences in kind
as we have noted between the type and the antitype in the sym
bolical institutions of worship the visible and earthly being
employed in the one to exhibit such relations and principles as
in the other appear in immediate connection with what is spiri
tual and heavenly. In the type we have the prospect of Canaan,
the Gospel of an earthly promise of rest, and, because not
believed, issuing in the loss of a present life of honour and
blessing ; in the antitype, the prospect of a heavenly inheritance,
the Gospel promise of an everlasting rest, bringing along with
it, when treated with unbelief and neglect, an exclusion from
eternal blessedness and glory.
Again, and with reference to the same period in the Church s
history, it is said in John iii. 14, 15, " As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
HISTORICAL TYPES. 91
everlasting life." The language here certainly does not neces
sarily betoken by any means so close a connection between the
Old and the New, as in the cases previously referred to ; nor are
we disposed to assert that the same connection in all respects
really existed. The historical transaction in this case had at first
sight the aspect of something occasional and isolated, rather than
of an integral and essential part of a great plan. And yet the
reference in John, viewed in connection with other passages of
Scripture bearing on the subject, sufficiently vindicates for it a
place among the earlier exhibitions of Divine truth, planned by
the foreseeing eye of God with special respect to the coming
realities of the Gospel. As such it entirely accords in nature
with the typical prefigurations already noticed. In the two
related transactions there is a fitting correspondence as to the
relations maintained : in both alike a wounded and dying con
dition in the first instance, then the elevation of an object ap
parently inadequate, yet really effectual, to accomplish the cure,
and this through no other medium on the part of the affected,
than their simply looking to the object so presented to their
view. But with this pervading correspondence, what marked
and distinctive characteristics ! In the one case a dying body,
in the other a perishing soul. There, an uplifted serpent of
all instruments of healing from a serpent s bite the most unlikely
to profit ; here the exhibition of one condemned and crucified
as a malefactor of all conceivable persons apparently the most
impotent to save. There, once more, the fleshly eye of nature
deriving from the outward object visibly presented to it the heal
ing virtue it was ordained to impart ; and here the spiritual eye
of the soul, looking in stedfast faith to the exalted Redeemer, and
getting the needed supplies of His life-giving and regenerating
grace. In both the same elements of truth, the same modes of
dealing, but in the one developing themselves on a lower, in the
other on a higher territory ; in the former having immediate
respect only to things seen and temporal, and in the latter to
what is unseen, spiritual, and eternal. And when it is con
sidered how the Divine procedure in the case of the Israelites
was in itself so extraordinary and peculiar, so unlike God s
usual methods of dealing in providence, in so far as these have
respect merely to inferior and perishable interests, it seems to
92 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
be without any adequate reason to want, in a sense, its just
explanation, until it is viewed as a dispensation specially de
signed to prepare the way for the higher and better things of
the Gospel.
Similar explanations might be given of the other historical
facts recorded in Old Testament Scripture, and invested with a
typical reference in the New. But enough has been said to
show the essential similarity in the respect borne by them to the
better things of the Gospel, and of that borne by the ritual
types of the law. The ground of the connection in the one
class, precisely as in the other, stands in the substantial oneness
of the ideas and relations pervading the earlier and the later
transactions, as corresponding parts of related dispensations ; or
in the identity of truth and principle appearing in both, as dif
ferent yet mutually depending parts of one great providential
scheme. In that internal agreement and relationship, rather
than in any mere outward resemblances, we are to seek the real
bond of connection between the Old and the New.
At first sight, perhaps, a connection of this nature may
appear to want something of what is required to satisfy the
conditions of a proper typical relationship. And there are two
respects more especially, in which this deficiency may seem to
exist.
1. It has been so much the practice to look at the connection
between the Old and the New in an external aspect, that one
naturally fancies the necessity of some more palpable and arbi
trary bond of union to link together type and antitype. The
one is apt to be thought of as a kind of pre-ordained pantomime
of the other like those prefigurative actions which the prophets
were sometimes instructed, whether in reality or in vision, to
perform (as Isaiah in ch. xx., or Ezekiel in ch. xii.), meaningless
in themselves, yet very significant as foreshadowing intimations
of coming events in providence. Such prophecies in action,
certainly, had something in common with the typical transac
tions now under consideration. They both alike had respect to
other actions or events yet to come, without which, pre-ordained
and foreseen, they would not have taken place. They both also
stood in a similar relation of littleness to the corresponding cir
cumstances they foreshadowed exhibiting on a comparatively
HISTORICAL TYPES. 1&gt;3
small scale what was afterwards to realize itself on a large one,
and thereby enabling the mind more readily to anticipate the
approaching future, or more distinctly to grasp it after it had
come. But they differed in this, that the typical actions of the
prophets had respect solely to the coming transactions they pre
figured, and but for these would have been foolish and absurd ;
while the typical actions of God s providence, as well as the
symbolical institutions of His worship, had a moral meaning of
their own, independently of the reference they bore to the future
revelations of the Gospel. To overlook this independent moral
element, is to leave out of account what should be held to con
stitute the very basis of the connection between the past and the
future. But if, on the other hand, we make due account of it,
we establish a connection which, in reality, is of a much more
close and vital nature, and one, too, of far higher importance,
than if it consisted alone in points of outward resemblance.
For it implies not only that the entire plan of salvation was all
along in the eye of God, but that, with a view to it, He was
ever directing His government, so as to bring out in successive
stages and operations the very truths and principles which were
to find in the realities of the Gospel their more complete mani
festation. He showed that He saw the end from the beginning,
by interweaving with His providential arrangements the ele
ments of the more perfect, the terminal plan. And, therefore,
to lay the groundwork of the connection between the prepara
tory and the final in the elements of truth and principle common
alike to both, instead of placing it in merely formal resem
blances, is but to withdraw it from a less to a more vital and
important part of the transactions from the outer shell and
appearance, to the inner truth and substance of the history ; so
that we can discern, not only some perceptible coincidences
between the type and the antitype, but the same fundamental
character, the same spirit of life, the same moral import and
practical design.
To render this more manifest, as it is a point of considerable
moment to our inquiry, let us compare an alleged example of
historical type, where the resemblance between it and the sup
posed antitype is of an ostensible, but still only of an outward
kind, with one of those referred to above the brazen serpent, for
94 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
example, or the deluge. In this latter example there was scarcely
any outward resemblance presented to the Christian ordinance
of baptism ; as in no proper sense could Noah and his family
be said to have been literally baptized in the waters. But both
this and the other historical transaction presented strong lines
of resemblance, of a more inward and substantial kind, to the
things connected with them in the Gospel such as enable us to
recognise without difficulty the impress of one Divine hand in
the two related series of transactions, and to contemplate them
as corresponding parts of one grand economy, rising gradually
from its lower to its higher stages of development. Take, how
ever, as an example of the other class, the occupation of Abel
as a shepherd, which by many, among others by Witsius, has
been regarded as a prefiguration of Christ in His character as
the great Shepherd of Israel. A superficial likeness, we admit ;
but what is to be found of real unity and agreement ? What
light does the one throw upon the other ? What expectation
beforehand could the earlier beget of the later, or what confir
mation afterwards can it supply ? Admitting that the death of
Abel somehow foreshadowed the infinitely more precious blood
to be shed on Calvary, what distinctive value could the sacrifice
of life in His case derive from the previous occupation of the
martyr? Christ, certainly, died as the spiritual shepherd of
souls, but Abel was not murdered on account of having been a
keeper of sheep ; nor had his death any necessary connection
with his having followed such an employment. For what pur
pose, then, press points of resemblance so utterly disconnected,
and dignify them with the name of typical prefigurations ?
Resemblances in such a case are worthless even if real, and
from their nature incapable of affording any insight into the
mind and purposes of God. But when, on the contrary, we look
into the past records of God s providence, and find there, in the
dealings of His hand and the institutions of His worship, a co
incidence of principle and economical design with what appears
in the dispensation of the Gospel, we cannot but feel that we
have something of real weight and importance for the mind to
rest upon. And if, farther, we have reason to conclude, not
only that agreements of this kind existed, but that they were
all skilfully planned and arranged, the earlier with a view to
HISTORICAL TYPES. 95
the later, the earthly and temporal for the spiritual and heavenly,
we find ourselves possessed of the essential elements of a
typical connection. We have reason, however, so to conclude,
as has partly been shown already, and will still farther be shown
in the sequel.
2. But granting what has now been stated allowing that
the connection between type and antitype is more of an internal
than of an external kind, it may still be objected, in regard
to the historical types, that they wanted for the most part some
thing of the necessary correspondence with the antitypes ; the
one did not occupy under the Old the same relative place that
the other did under the New existing for a time as a shadow,
until it was superseded and displaced by the substance. Per
haps not; but is such a close and minute correspondence ab
solutely necessary? Or is it to be found even in the case of
all -the symbolical types? With them also considerable differ
ences appear ; and we look in vain for anything like a fixed and
absolute uniformity. The correspondence assumed the most
exact form in the sacrificial rites of the tabernacle worship.
There, certainly, part may be said to have answered to part ;
there was priest for priest, offering for offering, death for
death, and blessing for blessing throughout, an inferior and
temporary substitute in the room of the proper reality, and con
tinuing till it was superseded and displaced by the latter. We
find a relaxation, however, in this closely adjusted relationship,
whenever we leave the immediate province of sacrifice ; and
in many of the things expressly denominated shadows of the
Gospel, it can hardly be said to have existed. In regard, for
example, to the ancient festivals, the new moons, the use or
disuse of leaven, the defilement of leprosy and its purification,
there was no such precise and definite superseding of the Old
by something corresponding under the New nothing like office
for office, action for action, part for part. The symbolical rites
and institutions referred to were typical not, however, as re
presenting things that were to hold specifically and palpably
the same place in Gospel times, but rather as embodying, in
set forms and ever-recurring bodily services, the truths and
principles that, in naked simplicity and by direct teaching,
were to pervade the dispensation of the Gospel.
96 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
There is quite a similar diversity in the case of the historical
types. In some of them the correspondence was very close and
exact ; in others more loose and general. Of the former class
was the calling of Israel as an elect people, their relation to the
land of Canaan as their covenant portion, their redemption from
the yoke of Egypt, and their temporary sojourn in the wilderness
as they travelled to inherit it all of which continued (the two
latter by means of commemorative ordinances) till they were
superseded by corresponding but higher objects under the Gospel.
In respect to these we can say, the new dispensation presents
people for people, redemption for redemption, inheritance for
inheritance, and one kind of wilderness-training for another;
objects in both precisely corresponding as regards the places
they respectively held, and the one preserving their existence
or transmitting their efficacy, till they were supplanted by the
other. But we do not pretend to see the same close connection
and the same exact correspondence between the Old arid the
New in all, or even the greater part, of the historical transactions
of the past which we hold to have been typical ; nor are we
warranted to look for it. The analogy of the symbolical types
would lead us to expect, along with the more direct typical
arrangements, many acts and institutions of a somewhat in
cidental and subordinate kind, in which a typical representation
should be given of ideas and relations, that could only find in
the realities of the Gospel their full and proper manifestation.
If they were not appointed as temporary substitutes for these
realities, and made to occupy an ostensible place in the divine
economy till the better things appeared, they were still fashioned
after the ideal of the better, and were thereby fitted to indoctri
nate the minds of God s people with certain notions of the truth,
and to familiarize them with its spiritual ideas, its modes of pro
cedure, and principles of working. And in this they plainly
possessed the more essential elements of a typical connection.
II. Enough, however, for the first point. We proceed to
the second ; which is, that such historical types as those undei
consideration were absolutely necessary, in considerable number
and variety, to render the earlier dispensations thoroughly pre
parative in respect to the coming dispensation of the Gospel.
HISTORICAL TYPES. 97
This was necessary, first of all, from the typical character of
the position and worship of the members of the Old Covenant.
The main things respecting them being, as we have seen, typical,
it was inevitable but that many others of a subordinate and
collateral nature should be the same ; for otherwise they would
not have been suitably adapted to the dispensation to which they
belonged.
But we have something more than this general correspond
ence or analogy to appeal to. For the nature of the historical
types themselves, as already explained, implies their existence,
in considerable number and variety. The representation they
were designed to give of the fundamental truths and principles
of the Gospel, with the view of preparing the Church for the
new dispensation, would necessarily have been incomplete and
inadequate, unless it had embraced a pretty extensive field.
The object of their appointment would have been but partially
reached, if they had consisted only of the few straggling ex
amples which have been particularly mentioned in New Testa
ment Scripture. Nor, unless the history in general of Old
Testament times, in so far as its recorded transactions bore on
them the stamp of God s mind and will, had been pervaded by
the typical element, could it have in any competent measure
fulfilled the design of a preparatory economy. So that what
ever distinctions it may be necessary to draw between one part
of the transactions and another, as to their bein in themselves
/ o
sometimes of a more essential, sometimes of a more incidental
character, or in their typical bearing being more or less closely
related to the realities of the Gospel, their very place and object in
a preparatory dispensation required them to be extensively typical.
To be spread over a large field, and branched out in many direc
tions, was as necessary to their typical as to their more im
mediate and temporary design.
Thus the one point grows by a sort of natural necessity
out of the other. But the argument admits of being consider
ably strengthened by the manner in which the historical types
that are specially mentioned in New Testament Scripture are
there referred to. So far from being represented as singular
in their typical reference to Gospel times, they have uniformly
the appearance of being only selected for the occasion. Nay,
VOL. I. G
98 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the obligation on the part of believers generally to seek for them
throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, and apply them to
all the purposes of Christian instruction and improvement, is
distinctly asserted in the Epistle to the Hebrews; and the
capacity to do so is represented as a proof of full-grown spiritual
discernment (Heb. v. 1114). There is, therefore, a sense in
which the saying of Augustine, " The Old Testament, when
rightly understood, is one great prophecy of the New," 1 is
strictly true even in regard to those parts of ancient Scripture
which, in their direct and immediate bearing, partake least of
the prophetical. Its records of the past are, at the same time,
pregnant with the germs of a corresponding but more exalted
future. The relations sustained by its more public characters,
the parts they were appointed to act in their day and generation,
the deliverances that were wrought for them and by them, and
the chastisements they were from time to time given to ex
perience, did not begin and terminate with themselves. They
were parts of an unfinished and progressive plan, which finds
its destined completion in the person and kingdom of Christ ;
and only when seen in this prospective reference do they appear
in their proper magnitude and their full significance.
Christ, then, is the end of the history as well as of the law,
of the Old Testament. It had been strange, indeed, if it were
otherwise ; strange if its historical transactions had not been
ordained by God to bear a prospective reference to the scheme of
grace unfolded in the Gospel. For what is this scheme itself,
in its fundamental character, but a grand historical development ?
What are the doctrines it teaches, the blessings it imparts, and
the prospects it discloses of coming glory, but the ripened fruit
and issue of the wondrous facts it records ? The things which
are there written of the incarnation and life, the death and
resurrection, of the Lord Jesus Christ, are really the foundation
on which all rests the root from which everything springs in
Christianity. And shall it, then, be imagined, that the earlier
facts in the history of related and preparatory dispensations did
not point, like so many heralds and forerunners, to these un-
1 Vetus Testamentum recte intelligentibus prophetia est Novi Testament!
(Contra Faust. L. xv. 2). And again, Ille apparatus veteris Testament! in
generationibus, factis etc. parturiebat esse venturum (Ib. L. xix. 31).
HISTORICAL TYPES. 99
speakably greater ones to come ? If a prophecy lay concealed in
their symbolical rites, could it fail to be found also in the histori
cal transactions that were often so closely allied to these, and
always coincident with them in purpose and design? Assuredly
not. In so far as God spake in the transactions, and gave dis
coveries by them of His truth and character, they pointed on
ward to the one " Pattern Man," and the terminal kingdom of
righteousness and blessing of which He was to be the head and
centre. Here only the history of God s earlier dispensations
attained its proper end, as in it also the history of the world rose
to its true greatness and glory. 1
III. The thought, however, may not unnaturally occur, that
if the historical matter of the Old Testament possess as much
as has been represented of a typical character, some plain indica
tions of its doing so should be found in Old Testament Scripture
itself ; we should scarcely need to draw our proof of the exist
ence and nature of the historical types entirely from the writings
1 Compare the remarks made by the author in "Prophecy viewed with
respect to its Distinctive Nature," etc., P. I., c. 2 ; also what has been said
here in p. 54 sq. of the views which have obtained currency in Germany re
specting the typical character of Old Testament history. Hartmann, in his
Verbinnung des Alten Test, mit den Newen, p. 6, gives the following from
a German periodical on the subject of Old Testament history, and its con
nection with the Gospel : " Must not Judaism be of great moment to
Christianity, since both stand in brotherly and sisterly relations to each
other ? The historical books of the Hebrews are also religious books ; the
religious import is involved in the historical. The history of the people, as
a divine leading and management in respect to them, was at the same time
a training for religion, precisely as the Old Testament is a preparation for
the New." Still more strongly Jacobi, as quoted by Sack, Apologetik, p.
356, on the words of Christ, that " as the serpent was lifted up, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up " (y-tyu6qva,i dg&lt;) : " History is also prophecy. The
past unfolds the future as a germ, and at certain points, discernible by the
eye of the mind, the greater may be seen imaged in the smaller, the internal
in the external, the present or future in the past. Here there is nothing
whatever arbitrary : throughout there is a divine must, connection, and
arrangement, pregnant with mutual relations." More recently, Hofmann,
in his Weissagung und Erfullung, as noticed in Ch. I., has run to an extreme
this view of Old Testament history, and in his desire to magnify the import
ance of it has depreciated prophecy really, however, to the disparagement
of the prophetical element in both departments.
100 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
of the New Testament. It was with the view of meeting this
thought that we advanced our third statement ; which is, that
Old Testament Scripture does contain undoubted marks and
indications of its historical personages and events being related
to some higher ideal, in which the truths and relations exhibited
in them were again to meet, and obtain a more perfect develop
ment. The proof of this is to be sought chiefly in the propheti
cal writings of the Old Testament, in which the more select
instruments of God s Spirit gave expression to the Church s
faith respecting both the past and the future in His dispensa
tions. And in looking there we find, not only that an exalted
personage, with His work of perfect righteousness, and His
kingdom of consummate bliss and glory, was seen to be in pro
spect, but also that the expectations cherished of what was to be,
took very commonly the form of a new and higher exhibition of
what had already been. In giving promise of the better things
to come, prophecy to a large extent availed itself of the charac
ters and events of history. But it could only do so on the two
fold ground, that it perceived in these essentially the same
elements of truth and principle which were to appear in the
future ; and in that future anticipated a nobler exhibition of
them than had been given in the past. And what was this but,
in other words, to indicate their typical meaning and design ?
The truth of this will more fully appear when we come to treat
of the combination of type with prophecy, which, on account
of its importance, we reserve for the subject of a separate
chapter. Meanwhile, it will be remembered how even Moses
speaks before his death of " the prophet which the Lord their
God should raise up from among his brethren like to himself"
(Deut. xviii. 18) one that should hold a similar position and do
a similar work, but each in its kind more perfect and complete
else, why look out for another 1 In like manner, David connects
the historical appearance of Melchizedek with the future Head
of God s Church and kingdom, when He announces Him as a
priest after the order of Melchizedek (Ps. ex. 4) ; he foresaw that
the relations of Melchizedek s time should be again revived in
this divine character, and the same part fulfilled anew, but
raised, as the connection intimates, to a higher sphere, invested
with a heavenly greatness, and carrying a world-wide signifi-
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 101
cancc and power. So again we are told (Mai. ill. 1, iv. 5)
another Elias should arise in the brighter future, to be succeeded
by a more glorious manifestation of the Lord, to do what had
never been done but in fragments before ; namely, to provide
for Himself a true spiritual priesthood, a regenerated people, and
an offering of righteousness. But the richest proofs are furnished
by the latter portion of Isaiah s writings ; for there we find the
prophet intermingling so closely together the past and the future,
that it is often difficult to tell of which he actually speaks. He
passes from Israel to the Messiah, and again from the Messiah
to Israel, as if the one were but a new, a higher and perfect
development of what belonged to the other. And the Church of
the future is constantly represented under the relations of the
past, only freed from the imperfections that attached to its state,
and rendered in every respect blessed and glorious.
Such are a few specimens of the way in which the more
spiritual and divinely enlightened members of the Old Covenant
saw the future imaged in the past or present. They discerned
the essential oneness in truth and principle between the two ;
but, at the same time, were conscious of such inherent imper
fections and defects adhering to the past, that they felt it re
quired a more perfect future to render it altogether worthy of
God, and fully adequate to the wants and necessities of His
people. And there is one entire book of the Old Testament
which owes in a manner its existence, as it now stands, to this
likeness in one respect, but diversity in another, between the
past and the future things in God s administration. We refer
to the Book of Psalms. The pieces of which this book consists
are in their leading character devotional summaries, expressing
the pious thoughts and feelings which the consideration of God s
ways, and the knowledge of His revelations, were fitted to raise
in reflecting and spiritual bosoms. But the singular thing is,
that they are this for the New as well as for the Old Testament
worshipper. They are still incomparably the most perfect ex
pression of the religious sentiment, and the best directory to the
soul in its meditations and communings about divine things,
which is anywhere to be found. There is not a feature in the
divine character, nor an aspect of any moment in the life of
faith, to which expression, more or less distinct, is not there
102 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
given. How could such a book have come into existence, cen
turies before the Christian era, but for the fact that the Old
and the New dispensations however they may have differed
in outward form, and the ostensible nature of the transactions
belonging to them were founded on the same relations, and
pervaded by the same essential truths and principles? No
otherwise could the Book of Psalms have served as the great
hand-book of devotion to the members of both covenants. There
the disciples of Moses and Christ meet as on common ground
the one still readily and gratefully using the fervent utterances
of faith and hope, which the other had breathed forth ages
before. And though it was comparatively carnal institutions
under which the holy men lived and worshipped, who indited
those divine songs ; though it was transactions bearing directly
only on their earthly and temporal condition, which formed the
immediate ground and occasion of the sentiments they uttered ;
yet, where in all Scripture can the believer, who now " worships
in spirit and in truth," more readily find for himself the words
that shall fitly express his loftiest conceptions of God, embody
his most spiritual and enlarged views of the Divine government,
or tell forth the feelings and desires of his soul even in many
of its most lively and elevated moods ?
But with this manifold adaptation to the spiritual thoughts
and feelings of the Christian, there is still a perceptible differ
ence between the Psalms of David and the writings of the New
Testament. With all that discovers itself in the Psalms of a
vivid apprehension of God, and of a habitual confidence in His
faithfulness and love, one cannot fail to mark the indications of
something like a trembling restraint and awe upon the soul ; it
never rises into the filial cry of the Gospel, Abba Father. There
is a fitfulness also in its aspirations, as of one dwelling in a dusky
and changeful atmosphere. Continually, indeed, do we see the
Psalmist flying, in distress and trouble, under the shelter of the
Almighty, and trusting in His mercy for deliverance from the
guilt of sin. Even in the worst times he still prays and looks
for redemption. But the redemption which dispels all fear, and
satisfies the soul with the highest good, he knew not, excepting
as a bright day-star glistening in the far-distant horizon. It
was in his believing apprehensions a thing that should one day be
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTER. 103
realized by the Church of God ; and he could tell also somewhat
of the mighty and glorious personage destined in the Divine
counsels to accomplish it of His unparalleled struggles in the
cause of righteousness, and of His final triumphs, resulting in
the extension of His kingdom to the farthest bounds of the earth.
O
But no more the veil still hangs ; expectation still waits and
longs ; and it is only for the believer of other times to say,
" Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation ;" " I have a desire to de
part, and to be with Christ ; or again, " Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know, that when He appears, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
Such is the agreement, and such also the difference, between
the Old and the New. " There we see the promise and prelude
of the blessings of salvation ; here, these blessings themselves,
far surpassing all the previous foreshado wings of them. There,
a fiducial resting in *Tehovah ; here, an unspeakable fulness of
spiritual and heavenly blessings from the opened fountain of
His mercy. There, a confidence that the Lord would not
abandon His people ; here, the Lord Himself assuming their
nature, the God-man connecting Himself in organic union with
humanity, and sending forth streams of life through its members.
There, in the background, night, only relieved by the stars of
the word of promise, and operations of grace in suitable accord
ance with it ; here, in the background, day, still clouded, indeed,
by our human nature, which is not yet completely penetrated
by the Spirit, and is ever anew manifesting its sinfulness, but
yet such a day as gives assurance of the cloudless sunshine of
eternity, of which God Himself is the light." 1
We here conclude the direct proof of our argument for the
typical character of the religion and history of the Old Testa
ment ; but it admits of confirmation from two distinct though
related lines of thought, the one analogical, derived from the
o / o /
existence of typical forms in physical nature, coupled with the
evidences of a progression in the Divine mode of realizing them ;
the other founded inferentially on what might seem requisite
1 Delitzsch, Biblisch-prophetische Thcologie, p. 232.
104 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to render the progression, apparent in the spiritual economy, an
effective growth towards "the dispensation of the fulness of
times." With a few remarks on each of these, we shall close
this branch of our inquiry.
1. The subject of typical forms in nature has only of late
risen into prominence, and taken its place in scientific investiga
tions. It had the misfortune to be first distinctly broached by
men who were more distinguished for their powers of fancy, and
their bold spirit of speculation, than for patient and laborious
inquiry in any particular department of science ; so that their
peculiar ideas respecting a harmony of structure running through
the organic kingdoms, and bearing relation to a pattern-form or
type, were for a time treated with contempt, or met with de
cided opposition. But further research has turned the scale in
their favour : the ideas in question may now be reckoned among
the established conclusions of natural science ; and so far from
occasioning any just prejudice to the interests of a rational
deism (as was once supposed), they have turned rather to its ad
vantage. For, in addition to the evidences of design in nature,
which show a specific direction toward a final cause (and which
remain untouched), there have been brought to light evidences,
not previously observed, of a striking unity of plan. The gene
ral principle has been made good, that in organic structures,
while there is an infinite variety of parts, each with its specific
functions and adaptations, there is also a normal shape, which
it more or less approaches, both in its construction as a whole,
and in each of its organs. Thus, in plants which have leaves
that strike the eye, the leaf and plant are typically analogous :
the leaf is a typical plant or branch, and the tree or branch a
typical leaf, with certain divergences or modifications necessary
to adapt them to their respective places. In the animal king
dom the structural harmony is not less perceptible, and still more
to our purpose. It has been found by a wide and satisfactory
induction, that the human is here the pattern-form the arche
type of the vertebrate division of animated being. In the struc
ture of all other animal forms there are observable striking
resemblances to that of man, and resemblances of a kind that
seem designed to assimilate the lower, as near as circumstances
would admit, to the higher. In all vertebrate animals it is
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTER. 105
found that the vertebrate skeleton is composed of a series of
parts of essentially the same order, only modified in a great
variety of ways to suit the particular functions it has to dis
charge in the different animal frames to which it belongs. Thus,
every segment, and almost every bone, present in the human
hand and arm, exist also in the fin of the whale, though appa
rently not required for the movement of this inflexible paddle,
and the specific uses for which it is designed ; apparently, there
fore, retained more for the sake of symmetry, than from any
necessity connected with the proper function of the organ. 1
Most strikingly, however, does the studied conformity to the
human archetype appear in the formation of the brain, which
is the most peculiar and distinguishing part of the animal frame.
" Nature," says Hugh Miller, " in constructing this curious organ
in man, first lays down a grooved cord, as the carpenter lays
down the keel of his vessel ; and on this narrow base the perfect
brain, as month after month passes by, is gradually built up,
like the vessel from the keel. First it grows up into a brain
closely resembling that of a fish ; a few additions more impart
the perfect appearance of the brain of a bird ; it then developes
into a brain exceedingly like that of a mammiferous quadruped ;
and finally, expanding atop, and spreading out its deeply corru
gated lobes, till they project widely over the base, it assumes its
unique character as a human brain. Radically such at the first,
it passes through all the inferior forms, from that of the fish
upwards, as if each man were in himself, not the microcosm of
the old fanciful philosopher, but something greatly more wonder
ful a compendium of all animated nature, and of kin to every
creature that lives. Hence the remark, that man is the sum
total of all animals * the animal equivalent, says Oken, to the
whole animal kingdom. " 2
This, however, is not the whole. For, as geology has now
learned to read w r ith sufficient accuracy the stony records of the
1 It is right to say, only apparently retained, though not strictly re
quired ; for, as Dr M Cosh has justly stated, there may still be uses and
designs connected with arrangements of the kind which science has not
discovered ; and the respect to symmetry may be but an incidental and
subordinate, not the primary or sole reason. See Typical .Fonws, p. 449.
2 Footprints, p. 291.
106 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
past, to be able to tell of successive creations of vertebrate
animals, from fish, the first and lowest, up to man, the last and
highest ; so here also we have a kind of typical history the less
perfect animal productions of nature having throughout those
earlier geological periods borne a prospective reference to man,
as the complete and ultimate form of animal existence. In the
language of theology, they were the types, and he is the anti
type, in the mundane system. Or, as more fully explained by
Professor Owen, " All the parts and organs of man had been
sketched out in anticipation, so to speak, in the inferior animals ;
and the recognition of an ideal exemplar in the vertebrated ani
mals proves that the knowledge of such a being as man must
have existed before man appeared. For the Divine mind which
planned the archetype, also foreknew all its modifications. The
archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh long prior to the
existence of those animal species that actually exemplify it.
To what natural laws or secondary causes the orderly succession
and progression of such organic phenomena may have been
committed, we are as yet ignorant. But if, without derogation
of the Divine power, we may conceive the existence of such
ministers, and personify them by the term NATUKE, we learn
from the past history of our globe, that she has advanced with
slow and stately steps, guided by the archetypal light amidst
the wreck of worlds, from the first embodiment of the vertebrate
idea under its old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed
in the glorious garb of the human form." 1
In this view of the matter, what a striking analogy does the
1 It is curious to notice that considerably before the progress of physical
science had enabled its cultivators to draw this deduction from the lower to
the higher forms of organic being, the same line of thought had suggested
itself to the inventive mind of Coleridge from a thoughtful meditation of the
successive stages of creation as described in Genesis, viewed in the light of
progressive developments in the mental as well as material world. The
passage as a whole is singularly characteristic of its distinguished author ;
but the part we have properly to do with is the following : " Let us carry
ourselves back in spirit to the mysterious week, the teeming work-days of
the Creator ; as they rose in vision before the eye of the inspired historian
of the generations of the heavens and of the earth, in the day that the
Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And who that hath watched
their ways with an understanding heart, could, as the vision evolving still
advanced toward him, contemplate the filial and loyal Bee; the home-
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTER. 107
history of God s operations in nature furnish to His plan in pro
vidence, as exhibited in the history of redemption ! Here, in
like manner, there is found in the person and kingdom of Christ
a grand archetypal idea, towards which, for successive ages, the
Divine plan was continually working. Partial exhibitions of it
appear from time to time in certain remarkable personages, in
stitutions, and events, which rise prominently into view as the
course of providence proceeds, but all marred with obvious
faults and imperfections in respect to the great object contem
plated ; until at length the idea, in its entire length and breadth,
is seen embodied in Him to whom all the prophets gave witness
the God-man, fore-ordained before the foundation of the world.
" The Creator to adopt again the exposition of Mr Miller in
the first ages of His workings, appears to have been associated
with what He wrought simply as the producer or author of all
tilings. But even in those ages, as scene after scene, and one
dynasty of the inferior animals succeeded another, there were
strange typical indications which pie-Adamite students of pro
phecy among the spiritual existences of the universe might pos
sibly have aspired to read ; symbolical indications to the effect
that the Creator was in the future to be more intimately con
nected with His material works than in the past, through a
glorious creature made in His own image and likeness. And
to this semblance and portraiture of the Deity the first Adam
all the merely natural symbols seem to refer. But in the
eternal decrees it had been for ever determined, that the union
of the Creator with creation was not to be a mere union by
proxy or semblance. And no sooner had the first Adam ap
peared and fallen, than a new school of prophecy began, in
which type and symbol w r ere mingled with what had now its
first existence on earth verbal enunciations ; and all pointed to
the second Adam, 6 the Lord from heaven. In Him, creation
building, wedded, and divorceless Swallow ; and, above all, the manifoldly
intelligent Ant tribes, with their commonwealths and confederacies, their
warriors and miners, the husband-folk that fold in their tiny flocks on the
honeyed leaf, and^he virgin sisters with the holy instincts of maternal love,
detached and in selfless purity and not say to himself, Behold the shadow
of approaching humanity, the sun rising from behind, in the kindling morn
of creation ! Thus all lower natures find their highest good in semblances and
seekings of that which is higher and tetter." (Aids to Reflection, i. p. 85.)
108 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
and the Creator meet in reality, and not in semblance. On the
very apex of the finished pyramid of being sits the adorable
Monarch of all : as the son of Mary, of David, of the first
Adam the created of God ; as God and the Son of God the
eternal Creator of the universe. And these the two Adams
form the main theme of all prophecy, natural and revealed. And
that type and symbol should have been employed with reference
not only to the second, but as held by men like Agassiz and
Owen to the first Adam also, exemplifies, we are disposed to
think, the unity of the style of Deity, and serves to show that
it was He who created the worlds that dictated the Scriptures." 1
It is indeed a marvellous similitude, and one, it will be per
ceived, which is not less fitted to stimulate the aspirations of
hope toward the future, than to strengthen faith in what the
Bible relates concerning the history of the past. For, if the
archetypal idea in animated nature has been wrought at through
long periods and successive ages of being till it found its proper
realization in man ; now that the nature of man is linked in
personal union with the Godhead for the purpose of rectifying
what is evil, and raising manhood to a higher than its original
condition, who can tell to what a height of perfection and glory
it shall attain, when the work of God " in the regeneration" has
fully accomplished its aim I " We know not what we shall be,
but we know that we shall be like Him," in whom the earthly
and human have been for ever associated with, and assimilated
to, the spiritual and divine. But the parallel between the method
of God s working in nature, and that pursued by Him in grace,
especially as presented in the above graphic extract, naturally
raises the question (to which reference has already been made,
p. 62), whether, or how far, the creation as constituted and
headed in Adam, is to be regarded as typical of the incarnation
and kingdom of Christ 1 As the question is one that cannot
be quite easily disposed of, while still it has a very material
bearing on our future investigations, we must reserve it for
separate discussion. 2 ^
2. If now we turn from God s plan in nature to His plan
in grace, and think of the conditions that were required to meet
in it, in order to render the progression here also exhibited fitly
1 Witness newspaper, 2d August 1851. 2 See next chapter.
FULNESS OF TYPICAL MATTKR. 109
conducive to its great end, we shall find a still farther confirma
tion of our argument for the place and character of Scripture
Typology. This plan, viewed with respect to its progressive
character, certainly presents something strange and mysterious
to our view, especially in the extreme slowness of its progression ;
since it required the postponement of the work of redemption
for so many ages, and kept the Church during these in a state
of comparative ignorance in respect to the great objects of her
faith and hope. Yet what is it but an application to the moral
history of the world of the principle on which its physical develop
ment has proceeded, and which, indeed, is constantly exhibited
before us in each man s personal history, whose term of probation
upon earth is, in many cases half, in nearly all a third part con
sumed, before the individual attains to a capacity for the objects
and employments of manhood 1 Constituted as we personally
are, and as the world also is, progression of some kind is indis
pensable to happiness and well-being ; and the majestic slowness
that appears in the plan of God s administration of the world, is
but a reflection of the nature of its Divine Author, with whom a
thousand years are as one day. Starting, then, with the assump
tion, that the Divine plan behoved to be of a progressive character,
the nature of the connection we have found to exist between
its earlier and later parts, discovers the perfect wisdom and fore
sight of God. The terminating point in the plan was what is
called emphatically " the mystery of godliness," God manifest
in the flesh for the redemption of a fallen world, and the estab
lishment through Him of a kingdom of righteousness that should
not pass away. It was necessary that some intimation of this
ulterior design should be given from the first, that the Church
might know whither to direct her expectations. Accordingly,
the prophetic Word began to utter its predictions with the very
entrance of sin. The first promise was given on the spot that
witnessed the fall ; and that a promise which contained, within
its brief but pregnant utterance, the whole burden of redemption.
As time rolled on, prophecy continued to add to its communica
tions, having still for its grand scope and aim " the testimony of
Jesus." And at length so express had its tidings become, and so
plentiful its revelations, that when the purpose of the Father
drew near to its accomplishment, the remnant of sincere worship-
1 10 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
pers were like men standing on their watch-towers, waiting and
looking for the long-expected consolation of Israel ; nor was
there anything of moment in the personal history or work of the
Son, of which it could not be written, It was so done, that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled.
It is plain, however, on a little consideration, that something
more was needed than the hopeful announcements of prophecy.
The Church required training as well as teaching, and training
of a very peculiar kind ; for she had to be formed for receiving
things " which men had not heard, nor had the ear perceived,
neither had the eye seen the things which God had prepared
for those that waited for Him " (Isa. Ixiv. 4). " The new dispen
sation was to be wholly made up of things strange and wonder
ful ; all that is seen and heard of it is contrary to carnal wisdom.
The appearance of the Son of God in a humble condition the
discharge by Him in person of a Gospel ministry, with its
attendant circumstances His shame and sufferings His resur
rection and ascension into heaven the nature of the kingdom
instituted by Him, which is spiritual the blessings of His king
dom, which are also spiritual the instruments employed for
advancing the kingdom, men devoid of worldly learning, and
destitute of outward authority the gift of the Holy Spirit, the
calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of so many among the Jewish
people : these, among other things, were indeed such as the
carnal eye had never seen, and the carnal ear had never heard ;
nor could they without express revelation, by any thought or
natural ingenuity on the part of man, have been foreseen or
understood." l But lying thus so far beyond the ken of man s
natural apprehensions, and so different from what they were
disposed of themselves to expect, if all that was done beforehand
respecting them had consisted in the necessarily partial and
obscure intimations of prophecy, there could neither have been
any just anticipation of the things to be revealed, nor any suitable
training for them ; the change from the past to the future must
have come as an invasion, rather than as the result of an ever-
advancing development, and men could only have been brought
by a sort of violence to submit to it.
To provide against this, there was required, as a proper
1 Vitringa on Isa. Ixiv. 4.
THE FULNESS OF TIME. Ill
accompaniment to the intimations of prophecy, the training of
preparatory dispensations, that the past history and established
experience of the Church might run, though on a lower level,
yet in the same direction with her future prospects. And what
her circumstances in this respect required, the wisdom and fore
sight of God provided. lie so skilfully modelled for her the
institutions of worship, and so wisely arranged the dealings of
His providence, that there was constantly presented to her view,
in the outward and earthly things with which she was conversant,
the cardinal truths and principles of the coming dispensation. In
everything she saw and handled, there was something to attemper
her spirit to a measure of conformity with the realities of the
Gospel ; so that if she could not be said to live directly under
" the powers of the world to come," she yet shared their secondary
influence, being placed amid the signs and shadows of the true,
and conducted through earthly transactions that bore on them
the image of the heavenly.
It is to this preparatory training, as being on the part of
God sufficiently protracted and complete, that we are to regard
the Apostle as chiefly referring, when he speaks of Christ Inn
ing appeared, " when the fulness of the time was come." (Gal.
iv. 4.) Chiefly, though not by any means exclusively. For
there is a manifold wisdom in all God s arrangements. In the
moral as well as in the physical world He is ever making nume
rous operations conspire to the production of one result, as each
result is again made to contribute to several important ends. It
is, therefore, a most legitimate object of inquiry, to search for all
the lines of congruity to be seen in the world s condition, that
opportunely met at the time of Christ s appearing, and together
rendered it in a peculiar manner suited for the institution of
His kingdom, and advantageously circumstanced for the diffu
sion of its truths and blessings among the nations of the earth.
But whatever light may be gathered from these external re
searches, it should never be forgotten that God s own record
must furnish the main grounds for determining the special fit
ness of the selected time, and the state of His Church the para
mount reason. In everything that essentially affects the interests
of the Church, pre-eminently therefore in what concerns the
manifestation of Christ, which is the centre-point of all that
112 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
touches her interests, the state and condition of the Church
herself is ever the first thing contemplated by the eye of God ;
the rest of the world holds but a secondary and subordinate
place. Hence, when we are told that Christ appeared in the
fulness of time, the fact of which we are mainly assured is,
that all was done which was properly required for bringing the
Church, whether as to her internal state or to her relations to
the world, into a measure of preparedness for the time of His
appearing. Not only had the period anticipated by prophecy
arrived, and believing expectation, rising on the wings of pro
phecy, reached its proper height, but also the long series of
preliminary arrangements and dealings was now complete, which
were designed to make the Church familiar with the fundamen
tal truths and principles of Messiah s kingdom, and prepare her
for the erection of this kingdom with its divine realities and
eternal prospects.
It is true that we search in vain for the general and wide
spread success which we might justly expect to have arisen from
the plan of God, and to have made conspicuously manifest its
infinite wisdom. With the exception of a comparatively small
number, the professing Church was . found so completely unpre
pared for the doctrine of Christ s kingdom, as to reject it with
disdain, and oppose it with unrelenting violence. But this
neither proves the absence of the design, nor the unfitness of
the means for carrying it into effect. It only proves how in
sufficient the best means are of themselves to enlighten and
sanctify the human mind, when its thoughts and imaginations
have become fixed in a wrong direction proves how the heart
may remain essentially corrupt, even after undergoing the most
perfect course of instruction, and still prefer the ways of sin to
those of righteousness. But while we cannot overlook the fatal
ignorance and perversity that pervaded the mass of the Jewish
people, we are not to forget that there still was among them a
pious remnant, "the election according to grace," who, as the
Church in the world, so they in the Church ever occupy the
foremost place in the mind and purposes of God. In the bosom
of the Jewish Church, as is justly remarked by Thiersch, "there
lay a domestic life so pure, noble, and tender, that it could yield
such a person as the holy Virgin," and could furnish an atmo-
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 113
sphere in which the Son of God might grow up sinless from
childhood to manhood. There were Simeon and Anna, Zacharias
and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the company of Apostles, the
converts, no small number after all, who flocked to the standard
of Jesus, as soon as the truths of His salvation came to be fully
known and understood, and the believing Jews and proselytes
scattered abroad, who, in almost every city, were ready to form
the nucleus of a Christian Church, and greatly facilitated its
extension in the world. Did not the course of God s prepara
tory dispensations reach its end in regard to these 1 Does not
even the style of argument and address used by the Apostles
imply that it did 1 How much do both their language and their
ideas savour of the sanctuary ! How constantly do they throw
themselves back for illustration and support, not only on the
prophecies, but also on the sacred annals and institutions of the
Old Testament ! They spake and reasoned on the assumption,
that the revelations of the Gospel were but a new and higher
exhibition of the principles which appeared alike in the events
of their past history and the services of their religious worship.
By means of these an appropriate language was already fur
nished to their hand, through which they could discourse aright
of spiritual and divine things. But more than that, as they had
no new language to invent, so they had no new ideas to discover,
or unheard-of principles to promulgate. The scheme of truth
which they were called to expound and propagate, had its foun
dations already laid in the whole history and constitution of the
Jewish commonwealth. In labouring to establish it, they felt
that they were treading in the footsteps, and, on a higher van
tage-ground, maintaining the faith of their illustrious fathers.
In short, they appear as the heralds and advocates of a cause
which, in its essential principles, had its representation in all
history, and gathered as into one glorious orb of truth the
scattered rays of light and consolation which had been emanat
ing from the ways of God since the world began. Tims wisely
were the different parts of the Divine plan adjusted to each
other ; and, for the accomplishment of what was required, the
training by means of types could no more have been dispensed
with, than the glimpse-like visions and hopeful intimations of
prophecy.
VOL. I. II
CHAPTER FOURTH.
THE PKOPER NATURE AND PROVINCE OF TYPOLOGY 3. GOD S
WORK IN CREATION, HOW RELATED TO THE INCARNATION
AND KINGDOM OF CHRIST.
THE analogy presented near the close of the preceding chapter
in an extract from Hugh Miller 1 between pre- Adamite for
mations in the animal kingdom, rising successively above each
other, and those subsequent arrangements in the religious sphere
which were intended to herald and prepare for the personal
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, is stated with becoming
caution and reserve. It keeps strictly within the limits of reve
lation, and assumes the existence of nothing in the work of
creation itself, with respect to typical forms or otherwise, such
as could, even to the most profound intelligences of the universe,
have suggested the idea of a further and more complete mani
festation of God in connection with humanity. The commence
ment of the new school of prophecy, allying itself to type and
symbol of another kind than had yet appeared, is dated from
the era of Adam s fall, as that which at once furnished the
occasion and opened the way for their employment ; while still,
in the mind of Deity itself, or " in the eternal decrees," as it is
expressed in the extract, it had been for ever determined that
there should yet be a closer union between the Creator and
creation than was accomplished in Adam. In other words, God
had from eternity purposed the Incarnation ; though the events
in providence which were to exhibit its need, and give rise to
the prophetic announcements and foreshadowing symbols which
should in due time point the eye of hope toward it came in
subsequently to creation, and by reason of sin; so that the
Incarnation was predestined, because the fall was foreseen.
The same caution, however, has not been always observed
not even in ancient, and still less in recent times. The spirit
1 See p. 107.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 115
of Christian speculation, in proportion as the circumstances of
particular times have called it into play, has striven to connect
in some more distinct and formal manner God s work in creation
with a higher destiny for man in the future ; but the modes of
doing so have characteristically differed. Among the patristic
writers the tendency of this speculation was to find in the ori
ginal constitution of things pre- intimations or pledges of a
higher and more ethereal condition to be reached by Adam and
his posterity, as the reward of obedience to the will of God, and
perseverance in holiness. The sense of various passages upon
the subject gathered out of their writings has been thus ex
pressed : " That Paradise was to Adam a type of heaven ; and
that the never-ending life of happiness promised to our first
parents, if they had continued obedient, and grown up to per
fection under that economy wherein they were placed, should not
have continued in the earthly paradise, but only have commenced
there, and been perpetuated in a higher state." l It is impossible
to say that such should not have been the case ; for what in the
event supposed might have been the ultimate intentions of God
respecting the destinies of mankind, since revelation is entirely
silent upon the subject, can be matter only of uncertain conjec
ture, or, at the very most, of probable inference. It is quite
conceivable that some other region might have been prepared
for their reception, where, free from any formal test of obedi
ence, free even from the conditions of flesh and blood, and
" made like unto the angels," they should have reaped the fruits
of immortality. But it is equally conceivable, that this earth
itself, which "the Lord hath given to the children of men,"
might have become every way suited to the occasion ; that as,
on the hypothesis in question, it should have escaped the blight-
1 This proposition, with the authorities that support it, may be found in
the discourses of Bishop Bull, Works, Vol. II., p. 67. His proofs from the
earlier Fathers Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenseus are somewhat inadequate.
The first explicit testimony is from Theophilus of Antioch, who speaks of
Adam being " at length canonized or consecrated and ascending to heaven,"
if he had gone on to perfection. The testimony becomes more full, as the
speculative tendency of the Greek philosophy gains strength in the Church.
And Clement of Alexandria expressly says in his Liturgy, that "if Adam
had kept the commandments, he would have received immortality as the
reward of his obedience," meaning thereby, eternal life in a higher sphere.
116 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
ing influence of sin, so other and happier changes might have
passed over it, and the condition of its inhabitants, not only than
they have actually undergone, but than any we can distinctly
apprehend ; until by successive developments of latent energies,
as well of a natural as of a moral kind, the highest attainable
good for creation might have been reached. For anything
we can tell, there may have been powers and susceptibilities
inherent in the original constitution of things, which, under the
benign and fostering care of its Creator, were capable of being
conducted through such an indefinite course of progressive ele
vation. But everything of this sort belongs to speculation, not
to theology ; it lies outside the record which contains the reve
lation of God s mind and will to man ; and to designate paradise
simply, and in its relation to our first parents, a type of heaven,
is even more than to speak without warrant of Scripture, it is
to regard paradise and man s relation to it in another light than
Scripture has actually presented them. For there the original
frame and constitution of things appears as in due accordance
with the Divine ideal, in itself good, therefore relatively per
fect ; and not a hint is dropped, or, so far as we know, an indi
cation of any kind given, that could beget in man s bosom the
expectation or desire of another state of being and enjoyment
than that which he actually possessed none, till the entrance
of sin had created new wants in his condition, and opened a new
channel for the display of God s perfections in regard to him.
It was the influence of the ancient philosophy, which associated
with matter in every form the elements of evil, or, at least, of
imperfection, that so readily disposed the Fathers of the Chris
tian Church to see in what was at first given to Adam only the
image of some higher and better inheritance destined for him
elsewhere. They did not consider what refinements matter
itself might possibly undergo, in order to its adaptation to the
most exalted state of being. But the same influence naturally
kept them from connecting with this prospective elevation to
a higher sphere the necessary or probable incarnation of the
Word ; since rather by detaching the human more from the
environments of matter, than by bringing the divine into closer
contact with it, did the prospect of a higher and more perfect
condition for man seem possible to their apprehensions. Hence,
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 117
also, in what may be fitly called the great symbol of the early
Church s faith respecting the incarnation the Nicene creed
goes no farther than this, that " for us men, and for the sake
of our salvation, the Word was made flesh." 1
In recent times the speculative tendency, especially among
the German divines, has shown a disposition to take the other
direction namely, to make the incarnation of itself, and apart
altogether from the fall of man, the necessary and, from the
first, the contemplated medium of man s elevation to the final
state of perfection and blessedness destined for him. Some of
the scholastic theologians had already signalized themselves by
the advocacy of this opinion in particular, Rupprecht of Deutz,
Alexander of Hales, Aquinas, Duns Scotus ; but it was so
strongly discountenanced by Calvin and the leading divines of
the Reformation, who denounced the idea (propounded afresh by
Osiander) of an incarnation without a fall as rash and ground
less, 2 that it sunk into general oblivion, till the turn given to
speculative thought by the revival of the pantheistic theology
served, among other results, to bring it again into favour. This
philosophy, while resisted by all believing theologians in its
strivings to represent the created universe as but the self-
evolution and the varied form of Deity, has still left its impress
on the views of many of them as to the nature of the connection
between Creator and creature as if an actual commingling
between the two were, in a sense, mutually essential ; since a
personal indwelling of Godhead in the form of humanity is con
ceived necessary to complete the manifestation of Godhead begun
in Adam, and only by such a personal indwelling could the work
of creation attain its end, either in regard to the true ideal of
humanity, on the one side, or to the revealed character of God
and the religion identified with it, on the other. Adam, there-
1 The divines of the Reformation very commonly concurred, to a certain
extent, in the view of the Fathers, and hence the position is defended by
Turretine, that Adam had the promise of being carried to heaven and
enjoying eternal life there as the reward of his obedience (Loc. Oct., Qwest.
VI.). But he admits that Scripture makes no distinct mention of this, and
that it is only matter of inference. The grounds of inference are in this
case, however, rather far to seek.
a See, for example, Calvin s Inst. L. ii. 12, 5. Maastricht, Theol. Lib. v.,
c. 4, 17.
118 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
fore, in his formation after the divine image, was the type of
the God-man, or the God-man was the true archetype and only
proper realization of the idea exhibited in Adam ; the fall, with
its attendant consequences, only determined the mode of Christ s
appearance among men, but by no means originated the necessity
of his appearing.
The representatives of this transcendental school of Typology,
as it may not inaptly be called which undoubtedly includes
some of the most learned theologians of the present day differ
to some extent in their mode of setting forth and vindicating the
view they hold in common, according to the particular aspect of
it which more especially strikes them as important. To give
only a few specimens Martensen presents the incarnation in
its relation to the nature of God : the true idea of God is that
of the absolute personality ; and as the union of Christ with God
is a personal union, the individual with whom God historically
entered into an absolute union, must be free from everything
individually subjective he must reveal nothing save the absolute
personality. Christ is not to be subsumed under the idea of
humanity, but, inversely, humanity must be subsumed under
Him, since it was He in whom and for whom all things were
created (Col. i. 15). He is at once the centre of humanity and
the revealed centre of Deity the point at which God and God s
kingdom are personally united, and who reveals in fulness what
the kingdom of God reveals in distinct and manifold forms.
The second Adam is both the redeeming and the world-com
pleting principle ; the incarnate Logos, and as such the head
not merely of the human race, but of all creation, which was
made by Him and for Him, and is again to be recapitulated in
Him. 1 Lange makes his starting-point the final issues of the
incarnation, and from these argues its primary and essential
place in the scheme of the Divine manifestations. The post-
temporal, eternal glory of the humanity of Christ points back to
its eternal, ideal existence in God. The eternal Son of God
cannot, in the course of His temporal existence, have saddled
Himself (behaftet sich) for ever with something accidental ; or
have assumed a form which, as purely historical, does not cor
respond to His eternal essence. We must therefore distinguish
1 Dogmatik, 130, 131.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 119
between incarnation and assumption of the form of a servant (so
as, he means, to place the latter alone in a relation of dependence
to the fall of man) ; must also learn to understand the eternal
beginnings of Christ s humanity, in order to perceive how inti
mate a connection it has with the past with the work of crea
tion, with primeval times, and the history of the Old Testament.
The whole that appeared in these of good is to be regarded as
so many vital evolutions of the Divine life that is in Christ ; but
in Him alone is the idea of it fully realized. 1 Both of the writers
just referred to, also Liebner, Kothe, and, greater than them
all, Dorner, lay special stress on the argument derived from the
headship of humanity indissolubly linked to Christ. Humanity,
according to Dorner, as it appears before God redeemed
humanity is not merely a mass or heap of unconnected indivi
duals, but an organism, forming, with the world of higher spirits
and nature, which is to be glorified for and through it, a com
plete and perfect organic unity. Even the natural world is an
unity, solely because there is indissolubly united with it a prin
ciple which stands above it and comprises it within itself namely,
the Divine Logos, by whom the world was formed and is sus
tained, who is the vehicle and the representative of its eternal
idea. But in a higher sense the world of humanity and spirits
is an unity, because through the God-man who stands over it,
and by His personal self-communication of Godhead-fulness per
vades it, its creaturely susceptibility to God is filled; it now
enters into the circle of the Divine life, and stands in living
harmony with the centre of all good. But a matter so essential
to the proper idea of humanity cannot belong to the sphere of
contingency ; it must be viewed as inseparably connected with
the purpose of God in creation. And there is another thought,
w r hich Dorner conceives establishes beyond doubt the belief,
that the incarnation had not its sole ground in sin, but had a
deeper, an eternal, and abiding necessity in the wise and free
love of God, namely, that Christianity is the perfect religion,
the religion absolutely, the eternal Gospel ; and that for this
religion Christ is the centre, without which it cannot be so much
as conceived. Whoso, says he, maintains that Adam might have
1 See the outline of his views in Dorner on the Person of Christ, note
23, Vol. II., P. II. of the original, note 34 of the Eng. Trans.
120 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
become perfect even without Christ, inasmuch as no one can
deem it possible to conceive of perfection without the perfect
religion, maintains, either consciously or unconsciously, two
absolute religions, one without, and one with Christ which is a
bare contradiction. No Christian, he thinks, will deny that it
makes an essential difference, whether Christ, or only God in
general, is the central point of a religion. At the same time,
with Christian candour he admits, that the necessity of the truth
he advocates will not so readily commend itself to theologians,
who are wont to proceed in an experimental and anthropological
manner (that is, who look at the matter as it has been evolved
in the history and experience of mankind), as it must, and
actually does, to those who recognise both the possibility and the
necessity of a Christian speculation, that takes the conception of
God for its starting-point. 1
While this mode of contemplating the incarnation of Christ,
and of connecting it with the idea of creation, has in its recent
development had its origin in the philosophy, and its formal
exhibition in the theology, of Germany, it is no longer confined
to that country ; and both the view itself, and its application to
the Typology of Scripture, have already found a place in our
own. theological literature. Dean Trench, in his Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge, although he ad
vances nothing strictly new upon the subject, yet he speaks not
less decidedly respecting the necessity of the incarnation, apart
altogether from the fall, to enable the race of Adam " to attain
the end of its creation, the place among the families of God,
for which from the first it was designed." Special stress is laid
by him, as by Lange, on the issues of the incarnation, as reflect
ing light on its original intention : " The taking on Himself of
our flesh by the Eternal Word was no makeshift to meet a
mighty, yet still a particular, emergent need; a need which,
conceding the liberty of man s will, and that it was possible for
him to have continued in his first state of obedience, might
never have occurred. It was not a mere result and reparation
of the fall, such an act as, except for that, would never have
been ; but lay bedded at a far deeper depth in the counsels of
1 Person of Christ, Vol. II., Pt. II., p. 1241. Eng. Trans., Div. II.,
Vol. III., p. 232, sq.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 121
God for the glory of His Son, and the exaltation of that race
formed in His image and His likeness. For, against those who
regard the incarnation as an arbitrary, or as merely an historic
event, and not an ideal one as well, we may well urge this
weighty consideration, that the Son of God did not, in and
after His ascension, strip off this human nature again ; He did
not regard His humanity as a robe, to be worn for a while and
then laid aside ; the convenient form of His manifestation, so
long; as He was conversing with men on earth, but the fitness
O O
of which had with that manifestation passed away. So far
from this, we know, on the contrary, that He assumed our
nature for ever, married it to Himself, glorified it with His own
glory, carried it as the form of His eternal subsistence into the
world of angels, before the presence of His Father. Had there
been anything accidental here, had the assumption of our nature
been an afterthought (I speak as a man), this marriage of the
Son of God with that nature could scarcely be conceived. He
could hardly have so taken it, unless it had possessed an ideal
as well as an historic fitness ; unless pre-established harmonies
had existed, such harmonies as only a divine intention could
have brought about between the one and the other."
The application of the view to Typology is apparent from
the very statement of it ; but it has also been formally made,
and so as to combine the results obtained from the geological
territory, with those of a more strictly theological nature. Thus,
the late Mr Macdonald 1 speaks of "the scheme of nature, read
from the memorials of creation inscribed on the earth s crust,
or recorded in the opening pages of Genesis, as progressive, and
from its very outset prophetic ;" and a little farther on he says,
" There is no reason whatever for confining the typical to the
events and institutions subsequent to the fall. The cause of
this arbitrary limitation lies in regarding as typical only what
strictly prefigured redemption, instead of connecting it with
God s manifestation of Himself and His purposes in all His acts
and administrations, which, however varied, had from the very
first one specific and expressed object in view His own glory
through man, at first created in the Divine image, and since the
fall to be transformed into it ; inasmuch as that moral disorder
1 Introd. to the Pent., Vol. II., p. 451.
122 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
rendered such a change necessary. The whole of the Divine
acts and arrangements from the beginning formed parts of one
system ; for, as antecedent creations reached their end in man,
so man himself in his original constitution prefigured a new and
higher relation of the race than the incipient place reached in
creation " (p. 457). The fall is consequently to be understood,
and is expressly represented, merely as a kind of interruption
or break in the march of providence toward its aim, in nature
akin to such events as the death of Abel and the flood in after
times; while the Divine plan not the less proceeded on its course,
only with special adaptations to the altered state of things.
I. It is this more special bearing of the subject, its relation
to a well-grounded and properly adjusted Scriptural Typology,
with which we have here chiefly to do ; and to this, accordingly,
we shall primarily address ourselves. In doing so, we neither
directly question nor defend the truth of the view under con
sideration ; we leave its title to a place in the deductions of a
scientific theology for the present in abeyance; and merely
regard it in the light in which it is put by its most learned
and thoughtful advocates, as a matter of inference from some
of the later testimonies of Scripture concerning the purposes of
God ; and this, too, only as informed and guided by a spirit of
Christian speculation, having for its starting-point the concep
tion of God.
Now the matter standing thus, it would, as appears to us,
be extremely unwise to lay such a view at the foundation of
a typological system, or even to give it in such a system a
distinctly recognised place. For this were plainly to bring a
certain measure of uncertainty into the very structure of the
system founding upon a few incidental hints and speculative
considerations concerning the final purposes of God, in which
it were vain to expect a general concurrence among theolo
gians, rather than upon the broad stream and current of His
revelations. It were also, as previously noticed (p. 58), to
make our Typology, in a very important respect, return to the
fundamental error of the Cocceian school ; that is, would in
evitably lead to the too predominant contemplation of every
thing in the earlier dispensations of God as from the Divine
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 123
point of view, and with respect to the great archetypal idea in
Christ, as from the beginning foreseen and set up in prospect.
This tendency, indeed, lias already in a remarkable manner
discovered itself among the divines who bring into the fore
ground of God s manifestations of Himself the idea of the God-
man. Lange, for instance, has given representations of the
" Divine-human life " in the patriarchs and worthies of ancient
times, which seem to leave no very distinctive difference be
tween the action of divinity in them and in the person of J esus.
Niigelsbach (in his work Der Gottmensch) even represents our
first parent as Elohim-Adam (God-man), on the ground of his
spiritual essence being of a divine nature ; and both in Adam
after the fall, and the better class who succeeded, there was
what he calls an artificial realization of the idea of the God-
manhood attempted, and in part accomplished. Hence, not
without reason has Dorner delivered a caution to those who
coincide with him in his view respecting the incarnation, to
beware of darkening the preparation for Christ by throwing
into their delineation of early times too much of Christ Him
self, or of becoming so absorbed in the typical as to overlook
the historical life and struggles of the people of the Old Cove
nant. 1 The caution, we are persuaded, will be of little avail,
so long as the idea of the incarnation is placed in immediate
relationship with God s work in creation ; for in that case it
must ever seem natural to make that idea shine forth in all the
more peculiar instruments and operations of God, and generally
to assimilate humanity in its better phases too closely to the
altogether singular and mysterious person of Immanuel to find
in it, in short, a kind of God-manhood, whereby the God-man
hood itself would inevitably come to be in danger of gliding
into the shadowy form of a Sabellian manifestation.
Even if this serious error could be avoided, another and
slighter form of the same erroneous tendency would be sure to
prevail, if the incarnation, as the archetypal idea of creation,
were formally introduced, and made the guiding-star of our
Typology. It would inevitably lead us, in our endeavours to
read out the meaning of God s working in creation and provi
dence, to put a certain strain upon the things which appear, in
1 Vol. II., Ft. II., No. 23, or Eng. Trans., No. 34.
124 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
order to bring out what is conceived to have been the ultimate
design in them ; we should be inclined to view them rather as
an artificial representation of what God predestined and foresaw,
than a natural and needed exhibition of things to be believed or
hoped for by partially enlightened but God-fearing men. The
Divine here must not be viewed as moving in a kind of lofty
isolation of its own ; it should rather be contemplated as letting
itself down into the human. We should feel that we have to
do, not simply with Heaven s plan as it exists in the mind and is
grasped by the all-comprehending eye of God, but with this plan
as gradually evolving itself in the sphere of human responsibility,
and developed step by step, in the manner most fitly adapted to
carry forward the corporate growth of the Church toward its
destined completeness, yet so as, at the same time, to mould the
character and direct the hopes of .successive generations in con
formity with existing relations and duties. It is the proper aim
and business of Typology to trace the progress of this develop
ment, and to show how, amid many outward diversities of form
and ever-varying measures of light, there were great principles
steadily at work, and in their operations forecasting, with growing
clearness and certainty, the appearance and kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To such a method also, Typology must owe much
of the interest with which it may be able to invest its proper line
of inquiry, and its success in throwing light on the history and
mutual interconnection of the Divine dispensations. But it were
to depart from this safe and profitable course, if we should
attempt to bring all that, by dint of inference and speculation,
expatiating in the strictly Divine sphere of things, we might find
it possible to connect with the earlier acts and operations of God.
These should rather be brought out in the aspect and relation
they bore to those whom they immediately respected ; in order
that, from the effect they were designed and fitted to produce in
the spiritual instruction and training of men who had in their
respective generations to maintain the cause and manifest the
life of God, the place and purpose may be learned that pro
perly belonged to them in the general scheme of a progressive
revelation.
The statement of Mr Macdonald may be referred to in proof
of what is likely to happen from the neglect of such considera-
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 12,")
tions, and from attempting to carry the matter higher. The
scheme of God, he says, as well that which commenced with
Adam as the preceding one which culminated in him, was
" from the outset prophetic ;" and again : " The whole of the
Divine acts and arrangements from the beginning formed parts
of one system ; for, as antecedent creations reached their end in
man, so man himself, in his original constitution, prefigured a
new and higher relation of the race to the Creator, than the
incipient place reached in creation." Now, taking the terms
here used in their ordinary sense, we must understand by this
statement that the work of creation in Adam carried in its very
constitution the signs and indications of better things to come
for man ; for, to speak of it as being prophetic, or having a pre-
figuration of a higher relation to the Creator than then actually
O O J
existed, imports more than that such a destiny was in the purpose
and decrees of the Almighty (which no one will dispute) : it
denotes, that the creation itself was of such a kind as to proclaim
its own relative imperfection, and at the same time, by means
of certain higher elements interwoven with it, to give promise of
a state in which such imperfection should be done away. The
question, then, is, How did it do so, or for whom ? The Lord
Himself, at the close of creation, pronounced it all very good ;
and the charge given to Adam and his partner spake only of a
continuance of that good as the end they were to aim at, and
of the loss of it as the evil they were to shun. What ground
is there for supposing that more was either meant on God s part,
or perceived on man s, than what thus appears on the broad
and simple testimony of the divine record ? Adam, indeed,
was made, and doubtless knew that he was made, in the image
of God ; as such he was set over God s works, and appointed in
God s name, to exercise the rights of a terrestrial lordship ; but
how should he have imagined from this, that it was in the
purposes of Heaven to enter into some closer relationship with
humanity, and that he, as the image of God, was but the figure
of one who should be actually God and man united? Yet, suppos
ing he could not. might he not have been so in fact without him-
O / O
self knowing it, as in subsequent times we find prefigurations of
Gospel realities, which were but imperfectly, sometimes perhaps
not at all, understood in that character by those who had directly
126 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to do with them 1 But the cases are by no means parallel. For,
in regard to those later prefigurations, the promise had already
entered of a restored and perfected condition ; and believing
men were not only warranted, but in a sense bound, to search
into them for signs and indications of the better future. If they
failed to perceive them, it was because of their feebleness of faith
and defect of spiritual discernment. In the primeval constitution
of things it was quite otherwise : man was altogether upright,
and creation apparently in all respects as it should be; the
Creator Himself rested with satisfaction in the works of His
hand, and by the special consecration of the seventh day invited
His earthly representative to do the same. How, in such a case,
should the thought of imperfection and deficiency have entered,
or any prospect for the future seemed natural, save such as might
associate itself with the progressive development and expansion
of that which already existed? Beyond this, whatever there
might be in the purpose and decrees of God, it is hard to
conceive how room could yet have been found for any expres
sion being given by Him, or hope cherished on the part of man.
Unquestionably there was much beyond in the Divine mind
and purpose. " Known unto God are all His works from the
beginning of the world." With infallible certainty He foresaw
ere time began the issues of that constitution of things which
was to be set up in Adam ; foresaw also, and predetermined, the
introduction of that covenant of grace by which other and hap
pier issues for humanity were to be secured. On this account
it is said of Christ, as the destined Mediator of that covenant,
that He was " fore-ordained before the foundation of the world ;"
and of those who were ultimately to share in the fruits of His
mediation, that they also were chosen in Him before the world
was made (1 Pet. i. 20 ; Eph. i. 4). But it is one thing to assign
a place to such ulterior thoughts and purposes in the eternal
counsels of the Godhead, and another thing to regard them as
entering into the objective revelation He gave of His mind and
will at the creation of the world, so as to bring them within the
ken of His intelligent creatures. In doing the one, we have both
the warrant of Scripture and the reason of things to guide us ;
while the other would involve the introduction, out of due time,
of those secret things which as yet belonged only to the Lord.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 127
According to what may be called the palpable and prevail
ing testimony of Scripture on the subject, the work of God in
creation is to be regarded as the adequate reflection of His own
infinite wisdom and goodness, adapted in all respects to the
special purposes for which it was designed ; but the sin of man
through the cunning of the tempter presently broke in to mar the
good ; and following thereupon the predestined plan of grace be
gan to give intimation of its purpose, and to open for itself a path
whereby the lost good should be won back, and the destroyer be
himself destroyed. This plan starts on its course with the
avowed aim of rectifying the evil which originated in man s
defection ; and it not less avowedly reaches its end when the
restitution, or bringing back again, of all things is accomplished
(Acts iii. 21). It carries throughout the aspect of a remedial
scheme, or restoration of that which had come forth in the fresh
ness and beauty of life from the hand of God. A rise, no doubt,
accompanies the process ; and the work of God at its consum
mation shall assuredly be found on a much higher level than at
the beginning, as it shall also present a much fuller and grander
exhibition of the Divine character and perfections. But still, in
the Scriptural form of representation, the original work continues
to occupy the position of the proper ideal : all things return, in
a manner, whence they came ; and a new heavens and a new
earth, with paradise restored and perennial springs of life and
blessing, appear in prospect as the glorious completion to which
the whole scheme is gradually tending. Since thus the things
of creation are exhibited in a relation so markedly different to
those of redemption, from that possessed by the preliminary, to
the final processes of redemption itself, it were surely to intro
duce an unjustifiable departure from the method of Scripture,
and also to confound things that materially differ, were we, in a
typological respect, to throw all into one and the same category.
Creation cannot possibly be the norm or pattern of redemption,
after the same manner that an imperfect or provisional execution
of God s work in grace is to that work in its full development
and ripened form. Yet, for the very reason that redemption
assumes the aspect of a restoration, not the introduction of some
thing absolutely new, creation assuredly is a norm or pattern, to
which the Divine agency in redemption assimilates its operations
128 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
and results : the one bases itself upon the other, and does not
aim at supplanting, but only at rectifying, reconstructing, and
perfecting it. Twin-ideals they may be called, and as such they
cannot but present many points of agreement, bespeaking the
unity of one contriving and all-directing mind, which it may
well become us on proper occasions to mark. But the distinct
ground this relationship occupies in Scripture should also find its
correspondence in our mode of treating the things that belong
to it ; and for the province of Typology proper, we cannot but
deem it on every account wise, expedient, and fitting that it
should confine itself to what pertains to God s work in grace,
and should move simply in the sphere of " the regeneration."
II. Passing now to the more general aspect of the view in
question respecting the incarnation and kingdom of Christ, or
its title to rank among the deductions of theological inquiry, it
would be out of place here to go into a lengthened examination
of it ; and the indication of a few leading points is all that we
shall actually attempt. The direction already taken on the
typological bearing of the subject, is that also which I feel con
strained to take regarding its general aspect. For, though it
scarcely professes to be more than a speculation, and one pur
posely intended to exalt the doctrine of the incarnation, yet the
tendency of it, I am persuaded, cannot be unattended with
danger, as it seems in various respects opposed to the form of
sound doctrine delivered to us in Scripture.
1. First of all, it implies, as already stated, a view of creation
not only discountenanced by the general current of Scriptural
representation, but not easily reconcileable with the perfect wis
dom and goodness of the Creator. As a matter of fact, creation
in Adam certainly fell short of its design ; or, to express it other
wise, humanity, as constituted in our first parent, failed to realize
its -idea. But as so constituted, was it not endowed with all
competent powers and resources for attaining the end in view ?
Was it absolutely and inherently incapable of doing so apart from
the incarnation ? In that case, one does not see how either the
work of God could possess that character of relative perfection
constantly ascribed to it in Scripture, or the defection of man
should have drawn after it such fearful penalties. Both God s
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 129
work and man s, on the hypothesis in question, seem to take a
position different from what properly belongs to them ; and the
manifestation of God s moral character in this world enters
on its course amid difficulties of a very peculiar and embar
rassing kind. The perplexity thus arising is not relieved by the
supposition, that mankind will be raised to a higher state of
perfection and blessedness through the medium of the incarna
tion than had otherwise been possible, and that this was hence
implied in creation as the means necessary to creation s end ;
for we have here to do with the character of God s work con
sidered by itself, and what immediately sprang from it. Nor
is it by any means certain, or we may even say probable,
that if humanity had stood faithful to its engagements, the
idtimate destiny of its members would have been in any
respect lower than that which they may attain through sin
and redemption. But on such a theme we have no sure light
to guide us.
2. The view presented by this theory of the mission of
Christ, however, is a still more objectionable feature in it ; for,
exalting the incarnation as of itself necessary to the higher ends
of creation, apart from the concerns of sin and redemption, it
inevitably tends to depress the importance of these, and gives to
something else, which was no way essentially connected with
them, the place of greatest moment for the interests of humanity.
The earlier Socinians, it is well known, on this very ground
favoured the scholastic speculations on the subject; they
espoused the view, not, indeed, of an incarnation without a fall
(for in no proper sense did they hold what these terms import),
but of the necessity of the mission of Christ, independently of
the sin of Adam and the consequences thence arising ; in this
they appeared to find some countenance for the comparatively
small account they made alike of the evil of sin, and of the
wondrous grace and glory of redemption. And to a simple,
unbiassed mind it must be all but incredible, that if the incar
nation of our Lord were traceable to some higher and more
fundamental reason than that occasioned by the fall, no explicit
mention should have been made of it, even in a single passage
of Scripture. All the more direct statements presented there
respecting the design and purpose of our Lord s appearance
VOL. I. I
130 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
among men stand inseparably connected with their deliverance
from the ruin of sin, and restoration to peace and blessing. The
distinctive name He bore (Jesus) proclaimed SALVATION to be
the grand burden of His undertaking ; or, as He Himself puts
it, " He came to save the lost," " to give His life a ransom for
many (Matt, xviii. 11, xx. 28) ; or still again, "that men might
have life, and might have it more abundantly" (John x. 10).
He was made of a woman, made under the law, in order that He
might redeem them who were held under the condemnation of
law (Gal. iv. 4). He took part of flesh and blood, in order that
by His death He might destroy him that had the power of death
was made like in all things to His brethren, as it behoved Him
to be, that He might be for them a faithful high priest and make
reconciliation for their sins (Heb. ii. 14-17). It is but another
form of the same mode of representation, when St John says
of Christ, that He was manifested to destroy the works of the
devil (1 John iii. 8) ; and that as the gift of God s love to the
world, it was to the end that men might not perish, but have
everlasting life (John iii. 16). In the Supper also, the most
distinctive ordinance of the Gospel, not the incarnation, but
redemption is presented as the central fact of Christianity.
Such is the common testimony of Scripture : redemption in
some one or other of its aspects is perpetually associated with the
purpose which Christ assumed our nature to accomplish ; and
the greatness of the remedy is made to throw light upon the
greatness of the evil which required its intervention. But
according to the view we now oppose, "both the consequences
of sin and the value of redemption are lowered, since not the
incarnation, but only its special form, is traceable to sin.
That God became man is in itself the greatest humiliation;
and yet this adorable mystery of divine love is not to stand
in any [necessary] connection with sin ! Only the compara
tively smaller fact, that that man in whom God would at any
rate have become incarnate had undergone sufferings and death,
is due to sin ! And what is even more dangerous, redemption
ceases to be a free act of Divine pity, and is represented as a
necessity implied in creation, which would have taken place
whether man had remained obedient or not. Thus /sin is not
the sole cause of man s present state ; and however the incar-
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 131
nation might remain an adorable mystery of love, redemption
could no longer do so, since it had been involved in the de
cree of the incarnation, and could not be regarded as proceed
ing solely from divine mercy and compassion toward fallen
man." 1
There are passages of Scripture sometimes appealed to on
the other side, but they have 110 real bearing on the point which
they are adduced to establish. One of these is Eph. i. 10, in
which the purpose of God is represented as having this for its
object, that "in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might
gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth." The passage simply indicates, among
the final issues of Christ s work, the recapitulating or summing
up (avcucefyakaiaxTao-Oai) of all things in Him, heavenly as well
as earthly ; but it is the historical Christ that is spoken of the
Christ in whom (as is stated immediately before) believers have
redemption through His blood, and are predestinated to life
eternal ; and there is not a hint conveyed of the purpose or pre
destination of God, except in connection with the salvation of
fallen man, and the work of reconciliation necessary to secure
it. What might have been the Divine purpose apart from this,
we may indeed conjecture, but it must be without any warrant
whatever from the passage before us ; and, as Calvin has justly
said, not without the audacity of seeking to go beyond the im
mutable ordination of God, and attempting to know more of
Christ than was predestinated concerning Him even in the Divine
decree (Inst., B. ii., c. 12, 5). The somewhat corresponding
but more comprehensive passage in Col. i. 15-17, has been also
referred to in this connection, but with no better result. For
though expressions are there applied to Christ, which, if isolated
from the context, might with some plausibility be explained to
countenance the idea of an incarnation irrespective of a fall,
yet when taken in their proper connection they contain nothing
to justify such an application. The starting-point here also is
redemption (ver. 14, "in w r hom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins ") ; and the statements in what
immediately follows (vers. 15-17), have evidently for their main
object the setting forth of the divine greatness of Him by whom
1 Kurtz, Bible and Astronomy, Chap. II., 12. Trans.
132 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
it is effected as the One by whom and for whom all things were
created Himself, consequently, prior to them all, and infinitely
exalted above them. But this plainly refers to Christ as the
Logos, or Word, through whom as such the agency is carried on,
and the works are performed, by which the Godhead is revealed
and brought out to the view of finite intelligence. In that
respect He is " the image of the invisible God" (ver. 15) ; be
cause in Him exists with perfect fulness, and from Him goes
forth into actual embodiment, that which forms a just represen
tation of the mind and character of the Eternal. On the same
account also, and with reference simply to His creative agency,
He is "the first-born of every creature;" being the causal be
ginning, whence the whole sprang into existence, and the natural
head, under whom all its orders of being must ever stand ranged
before God. His divine Sonship is consequently the living
root, in which the filial relationship of men and angels had its
immediate ground ; and His image of Godhead that w^hich re
flected itself in their original righteousness and purity. Hence,
as all things came from Him at first in the character of the
revealing Word, so they shall be again recapitulated in Him as
the Word made flesh though in degrees of affinity to Him,
and with diverse results corresponding to the relations they re
spectively occupied to His redemptive agency. Hence, also, the
Divine image, which by Him as the Creator was imparted to
Adam, is again restored upon all who become related to Him as
the Redeemer : they are renewed after the image of Him that
created them (Col. iii. 10, Eph. iv. 24) ; implying that His
work in redemption, as to its practical effect on the soul, is a
substantial reproduction of that which proceeded from Him at
creation.
We have looked at the only passages worth naming which
have been pressed in support of the theory under consideration ;
and can see nothing in them, when fairly interpreted, that seems
at variance with the general tenor of the testimony of Scrip
ture on the subject. But this so distinctly and -constantly
associates the incarnation of Christ with the scheme of redemp
tion, that to treat it otherwise must be held to be essentially
anti-scriptural.
3. The matter is virtually disposed of, in a theological point
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 133
of view, when we have brought to bear upon it with apparent
collusiveness the testimony of Scripture ; nor is there anything
in the collateral arguments employed by the advocates of the
theory, as indicated in the outline formerly given of their views,
which ought to shake our confidence in the result. That, for
example, derived from the wonderful relationship, the personal
and everlasting union, into which humanity has been brought
with Godhead, as if the purpose concerning it should be turned
into a kind of after-thought, and it should sink, in a manner
derogatory to its high and unspeakably important nature, into
something arbitrary and contingent, if placed in connection
merely with the fall : Such an argument derives all its plausi
bility from the limitations and defects inseparable from a human
mode of contemplation. To the eye of Him who sees the end
from the beginning, whose purpose, embracing the whole com
pass of the providential plan, was formed before even the begin
ning was effected, there could be nothing really contingent or
uncertain in any part of the process. Nor, on the other hand,
was the creation of man necessary (in the absolute sense of the
term), any more than the fall of man : it depended on the
movements of a will sovereignly free ; and, hypothetically, must
be placed among the things which, prior to their existence, might
or might not, to human view, have taken place. Besides, since
anyhow the mode of the incarnation was determined by the cir
cumstances of the fall, and the mode, as well as the thing itself,
decreed from the very first, how can we with propriety dis
tinguish between the two ? The one, as well as the other, has
a most intimate connection with the perfections of Deity ; and,
for anything we know, the reality in any other form might not
have approved itself to the infinitely wise and absolutely perfect
mind of God. Otherwise than it is, we can have no right to
say it would have been at all.
The argument founded on the supposed necessity of the
incarnation to the proper unity of the human race, is entitled
to no greater weight than the one just noticed. It assumes a
necessity which has not and cannot be proved to have existed.
Situated as the human family now is, it may no doubt be fitly
designated, with Dorner, " a mere mass," an aggregate of indi
viduals, without any pervading principle to constitute them into
134 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
an organism. But this is itself one of the results of the fall ;
and no one is entitled to argue from what actually is, to what
would have been, if the race had stood in its normal condition.
In the transmission of Adam s guilt to his posterity, with its
fearful heritage of suffering, corruption, and death, we have
continually before us the remains of a living organism, the
reverse side, as it were, of the original likeness of humanity.
Why might there not have been, had its divinely constituted
head proved stedf ast to his engagements, the transmission through
that head of a yet more powerful as well as happy influence to
all the members of the family? We have no reason to affirm
such a thing to have been impossible, especially as the human
head was but the representative and medium of communication
appointed by and for Him who was the causal or creative head
of the family. Dorner himself admits, that even the natural
world is an unity, because in the Divine Logos, as the world-
former and preserver, who in Himself bears and represents its
eternal idea, it has a principle which is above it, yet pervades it,
and comprises it within itself. 1 If so much can be said even
now, how much more might it have been said of the world viewed
as it came from the hand of its Maker, with no moral barrier
to intercept the flow of life and blessing from its Divine foun-
tainhead, and paralyze the constitution of nature in its more
vital functions ! In that case the unity in diversity, which is
now the organic principle of the Christian Church, might, and
doubtless would, have been that also of the Adamic family :
only, in the one case, having its recognised seat and effective
power in Christ as the incarnate Redeemer; in the other, in
Him as the eternal and creative Word. Indeed, from the
general relation of the two economies to each other, we are
warranted in assuming, that as, in regard to individuals, Christ,
the Redeemer, restores the Divine image, which, as to all
essential properties, was originally given by Christ, the Word,
so in regard to the race (considered as the subject of blessing),
He restores in the one capacity what, as to germ and principle,
He had implanted in the other. There are, of course, grada
tions and differences, but with these also fundamental agreements.
As to the argument that Christianity is the absolute religion,
1 Vol. TL, Pt. II., p. 1242 ; Eng. Trans., Div. II., Vol. III., p. 235.
CREATION HOW RELATED TO CHRISTIANITY. 135
and that without an incarnation there could be no Christianity in
the proper sense, little more need be said, than that it starts a
problem which, in our present imperfect condition, we want the
materials for solving, if, indeed, we shall ever possess them.
To speak of the absolute in connection with what, from its very
nature, and with a view to its distinctive aims, must be inter
woven with much that pertains to the individual and the relative,
is to employ terms to which we find it impossible to attach a very
definite meaning. But if a religion is entitled to be called
absolute, it surely ought to be because it is alike adapted to all,
who through it are to contemplate and adore God the whole
universe of intelligent and moral creatures. How this, how
ever, could have been found in a revelation which had the in
carnation for its central fact, found precisely on this account,
and no otherwise, is hard to be understood, since, to say
nothing of the incarnation as now indissolubly linked to the facts
of redemption, even an incarnation dissociated from everything
relating to a fall, must still be viewed as presenting aspects, and
bearing a relation, to the human family, which it could not have
done to angelic natures. But, apart from this apparent incon
gruity, if there be such a thing possible as a religion that can
justly be entitled to the name of absolute, we know as yet too
little of the created universe, and the relations in which other
portions of its inhabitants stand to the Creator, to pronounce
with confidence on the conditions which would be required to
meet in it. We stand awed, too, by the solemn utterance, " No
man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son may reveal Him ;" and assured that the Son has
nowhere revealed what, according to the mind of the Father,
would be needed to constitute for all times and regions the
absolute religion, we feel that on such a theme silence is our
true wisdom.
CHAPTER FIFTH.
PROPHETICAL TYPES, OR THE COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH
PROPHECY ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE OF PROPHECY.
A TYPE, as already explained and understood, necessarily pos
sesses something of a prophetical character, and differs in form
rather than in nature from what is usually designated prophecy.
The one images or prefigures, while the other foretells, coming
realities. In the one case representative acts or symbols, in the
other verbal delineations, serve the purpose of indicating before
hand what God was designed to accomplish for His people in
the approaching future. The difference is not such as to affect
the essential nature of the two subjects, as alike connecting
together the Old and the New in God s dispensations. In
distinctness and precision, however, simple prophecy has greatly
the advantage over informations conveyed by type. For pro
phecy, however it may differ in its general characteristics from
history, as it naturally possesses something of the directness, so
it may also descend to something of the definiteness, of historical
description. But types having a significance or moral import of
their own, apart from anything prospective, must, in their pro
phetical aspect, be somewhat less transparent, and possess more
of a complicated character. Still the relation between type and
antitype, when pursued through all its ramifications, may pro
duce as deep a conviction of design and pre-ordained connec
tion, as can be derived from simple prophecy and its fulfilment,
though, from the nature of things, the evidence in the latter
case must always be more obvious and palpable than in the
former.
But the possession of the same common character is not the
only link of connection between type and prophecy. Not only
do they agree in having both a prospective reference to the
future, but they are often also combined into one prospective
exhibition of the future. Prophecy, though it sometimes is of
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 137
a quite simple and direct nature, is not always, nor even com
monly, of this description; it can scarcely ever be said to delineate
the future with the precision and exactness that history employs
in recording the past. In many portions of it there is a certain
degree of complexity, if not dubiety, and that mainly arising
from the circumstances and transactions of the past being in
some way interwoven with its anticipations of things to come.
Here, however, we approach the confines of a controversy on
which some of the greatest minds have expended their talents
and learning, and with such doubtful success on either side, that
the question is still perpetually brought up anew for discussion,
whether there is or is not a double sense in prophecy *? That
some portion of debateable ground will always remain connected
with the subject, appears to us more than probable. But, at the
same time, we are fully persuaded that the portion admits of
being greatly narrowed in extent, and even reduced to such
small dimensions as not materially to affect the settlement of
the main question, if only the typical element in prophecy is
allowed its due place and weight. This we shall endeavour,
first of all, to exhibit in the several aspects in which it actually
presents itself ; and shall then subjoin a few remarks on the
views of those who espouse either side of the question, as it is
usually stated.
From the general resemblance between type and prophecy,
we are prepared to expect that they may sometimes run into
each other; and especially, that the typical in action may in
various ways form the groundwork and the materials by means
of which the prophetic in word gave forth its intimations of the
coming future. And this, it is quite conceivable, may have
been done under any of the following modifications. 1. A
typical action might, in some portion of the prophetic word, be
historically mentioned ; and hence the mention being that of a
prophetical circumstance or event, would come to possess a pro
phetical character. 2. Or something typical in the past or the
present might be represented in a distinct prophetical announce
ment, as going to appear again in the future ; thus combining
together the typical in act and the prophetical in word. 3. Or
the typical, not expressly and formally, but in its essential rela
tions and principles, might be embodied in an accompanying
138 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
prediction, which foretold things corresponding in nature, but
far higher and greater in importance. 4. Or, finally, the typical
might itself be still future, and in a prophetic word might be
partly described, partly pre-supposed, as a vantage-ground for
the delineation of other things still more distant, to which, w r hen
it occurred, it was to stand in the relation of type to antitype.
We could manifestly have no difficulty in conceiving such com
binations of type with prophecy, without any violence done to
their distinctive properties, or any invasion made on their re
spective provinces ; nothing, indeed, happening but what might
have been expected from their mutual relations, and their fitness
for being employed in concert to the production of common
ends. And we shall now show how each of the suppositions
has found its verification in the prophetic Scriptures. 1
I. The first supposition is that of a typical action being histo
rically mentioned in the prophetic word, and the mention, being
that of a prophetical circumstance or event, thence coming to
possess a prophetical character. There are two classes of scrip
tures which may be said to verify this supposition ; one of which
is of a somewhat general and comprehensive nature, so that the
fulfilment is not necessarily confined to any single person or
period, though it could not fail in an especial manner to appear
in the personal history of Christ. To this class belong such
recorded experiences as the following : " The zeal of Thine
house hath eaten Me up" (Ps. Ixix. 9 ; comp. with John ii. 17) ;
" He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against
Me" (Ps. xli. 9 ; comp. with John xiii. 18) ; " They hated Me
without a cause" (Ps. Ixix. 4 ; comp. with John xv. 25) ; " The
stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the
corner" (Ps. cxviii. 22 ; comp. with Matt. xxi. 42 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6,
7). These passages are all distinctly referred to Christ in the
Gospels, and the things that befell Him are expressly said or
plainly indicated to have happened, that such Scriptures might
1 It is proper to state, however, that we cannot present here anything
like a full and complete elucidation of the subject ; and we therefore mean
to supplement this chapter by an Appendix on the Old Testament in the
New, in which the subject will both be considered from a different point of
view, and followed out more into detail. See Appendix A.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 139
be fulfilled. Yet, as originally penned, they assume the form of
historical statements rather than of prophetical announcements
recorded experiences on the part of those who indited them,
and experiences of a kind that, in one form or another, could
scarcely fail to be often recurring in the history of God s Church
and people. As such it might have seemed enough to say, that
they contained general truths which were exemplified also in
Jesus, when travailing in the work of man s redemption. But
the convictions of Jesus Himself and the inspired writers of the
New Testament go beyond this ; they perceive a closer connec
tion a prophetical element in the passages, which must find its
due fulfilment in the personal experience of Christ. And this
the passages contained, simply from their being, in their imme
diate and historical reference, descriptive of what belonged to
characters David and Israel that bore typical relations to
Christ ; so that their being descriptive in the one respect neces
sarily implied their being prophetic in the other. What had
formerly taken place in the experience of the type, must sub
stantially renew itself again in the experience of the great anti
type, whatever other and inferior renewals it may find besides.
To the same class also may be referred the passage in Ps.
Ixxviii. 2, " I will open my mouth in a parable (lit. similitude) ;
I will utter dark sayings (lit. riddles) of old," which in Matt,
xiii. 35 is spoken of as a prediction that found, and required to
find, its fulfilment in our Lord s using the parabolic mode of
discourse. As an utterance in the seventy-eighth Psalm, the
word simply records a fact, but a fact essentially connected
with the discharge of the prophetical office, and therefore sub
stantially indicating what must be met with in Him in whom
all prophetical endowments were to have their highest mani
festation. Every prophet may be said to speak in similitudes
or parables in the sense here indicated, which is comprehen
sive of all discourses upon divine things, delivered in figurative
terms or an elevated style, and requiring more than common
discernment to understand it aright. The parables of our
Lord formed one species of it, but not by any means the only
one. It was the common prophetico-poetical diction, which was
characterized, not only by the use of measured sentences, but
also by the predominant employment of external forms and
140 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
natural similitudes. But marking as it did the possession of a
prophetical gift, the record of its employment by Christ s pro
phetical types and forerunners was a virtual prediction, that it
should be ultimately used in some appropriate form by Himself.
The other class of passages which comes within the terms of
the first supposition, is of a more specific and formal character.
It coincides with the class already considered, in so far as it
consists of words originally descriptive of some transaction or
circumstance in the past, but afterwards regarded as prophetically
indicative of something similar under the Gospel. Such is the
word in Hos. xi. 1, " I called my son out of Egypt," which, as
uttered by the prophet, was unquestionably meant to refer
historically to the fact of the Lord s goodness in delivering
Israel from that land of bondage and oppression. But the
Evangelist Matthew expressly points to it as a prophecy, and
tells us that the infant Jesus was for a time sent into Egypt,
and again brought out of it, that the word might be fulfilled.
This arose from the typical connection between Christ and
Israel. The scripture fulfilled was prophetical, simply because
the circumstance it recorded w r as typical. But in so consider
ing it, the Evangelist puts no new strain upon its terms, nor
introduces any sort of double sense into its import. He merely
points to the prophetical element involved in the transaction it
relates, and thereby discovers to us a bond of connection between
the Old and the New in God s dispensations, necessary to be
kept in view for a correct apprehension of both.
The same explanation in substance may be given of another
example of the same class the word in Exod. xii. 46, " A bone
of Him shall not be broken," which in John xix. 36 is represented
as finding its fulfilment in the remarkable preservation of our
Lord s body on the cross from the common fate of malefactors.
The scripture in itself was a historical testimony regarding the
treatment the Israelites were to give to the paschal lamb, which,
instead of being broken into fragments, was to be preserved
entire, and eaten as one whole. It could only be esteemed a
prophecy from being the record of a typical or prophetical
action. But, when viewed in that light, the Scripture itself
stands precisely as it did, without any recondite depth or subtile
ambiguity being thrown into its meaning. For the prophecy
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 141
in it is found, not by extracting from its words some nexv and
hidden sense, but merely by noting the typical import of the
circumstances of which the words in their natural and obvious
sense are descriptive.
How either Israel or the paschal lamb should have been in
such a sense typical of Christ, that what is recorded of the
one could be justly regarded as a prophecy of what was to take
place in the other, will be matter for future inquiry, and, in
connection with some other prophecies, will be partly explained
in the Appendix already referred to in this chapter. It is the
/principle on which the explanation must proceed, to which alone
for the present we desire to draw attention, and which, in the
cases now under consideration, simply recognises the prophetical
element involved in the recorded circumstance or transaction
of the past. Neither is the Old Testament Scripture, taken by
itself, prophetical ; nor does the New Testament Scripture invest
it with a force and meaning foreign to its original purport and
design. The Old merely records the typical fact, which properly
constitutes the whole there is of prediction in the matter ; while
the New reads forth its import as such, by announcing the
co-relative events or circumstances in which the fulfilment
should be discovered. And nothing more is needed for per
fectly harmonizing the two together, than that we should so far
identify the typical transaction recorded with the record that
embodies it, as to perceive, that when the Gospel speaks of a
scripture fulfilled, it speaks of that scripture in connection
with the prophetical character of the subject it relates to.
There is nothing, surely, strange or anomalous in this. It
is but the employment of a metonymy of a very common kind,
according to which what embodies or contains anything is viewed
as in a manner one with the thing itself as when the earth is
made to stand for the inhabitants of the earth, a house for its
inmates, a cup for its contents, a word descriptive of events past
or to come, as if it actually produced them. 1 Of course, the
1 So, for example, in Hos. vi. 5, " I have hewed them by the prophets ; "
Gen. xxvii. 37, " Behold I have made him thy lord ;" xlviii. 22, u I have
given thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of
the Amorite " each ascribing to the word spoken the actual doing of that
which it only declared to have been done.
142 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
validity of such a mode of explanation depends entirely upon
the reality of the connection between the alleged type and
antitype between the earlier circumstance or object described,
and the later one to which the description is prophetically
applied. On any other ground such references as those in the
one Evangelist to Hosea, and in the other to Exodus, can
only be viewed as fanciful or strained accommodations. But
the matter assumes another aspect if the one was originally
ordained in anticipation of the other, and so ordained, that
the earlier should not have been brought into existence if the
later had not been before in contemplation. Seen from this
point of view, which we take to have been that of the in
spired writers, the past appears to run into the future, and
to have existed mainly on its account. And the record or de
lineation of the past is naturally and justly, not by a mere
fiction of the imagination, held to possess the essential charac
ter of a prediction. Embodying a prophetical circumstance or
action, it is itself named by one of the commonest figures of
speech, a prophecy.
II. Our second supposition was that of something typical in
the past or present being represented in a distinct prophetical
announcement as going to appear again in the future, the
prophetical in word being thus combined with the typical in act
into a prospective delineation of things to come. This supposi
tion also includes several varieties, and in one form or another
has its exemplifications in many parts of the prophetic word.
For it is in a manner the native tendency of the mind, when
either of itself forecasting, or under the guidance of a Divine
impulse anticipating and disclosing the future, to see this future
imaged in the past, to make use of the known in giving shape
and form to the unknown ; so that the things which have been,
are then usually contemplated as in some respect types of what
shall be, even though in the reality there may be considerable
differences of a formal kind between them.
How much it is the native tendency of the mind to work in
this manner, when itself endeavouring to descry the events of
the future, is evident from the examples, transmitted to us by
the most cultivated minds, of human divination. Thus the
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 143
Pythoness in Virgil, when disclosing to ^Cneas what he and his
posterity might expect in Latium, speaks of it merely as a re
petition of the scenes and experiences of former times. " You
shall not want Simois, Xanthus, or the Grecian camp. An
other Achilles, also of divine offspring, is already provided for
Latium." 1 In like manner Juno, in the vaticination put into
her mouth by Horace, respecting the possible destinies of Rome,
declares, that in the circumstances supposed, " the fortune of
Troy again reviving, should again also be visited with terrible
disaster; and that even if a wall of brass were thrice raised around
it, it should be thrice destroyed by the Greeks." 2 In such ex
amples of pretended divination, no one, of course, imagines it to
have been meant that the historical persons and circumstances
mentioned were to be actually reproduced in the approaching
or contemplated future. All we are to understand is, that others
of a like kind holding similar relations to the parties interested,
and occupying much the same position were announced before
hand to appear ; and so would render the future a sort of re
petition of the past, or the past a kind of typical foreshadowing
of the future.
As an example of Divine predictions precisely similar in
form, we may point to Hos. viii. 13, where the prophet, speaking
of the Lord s purpose to visit the sins of Israel with chastise
ment, says, " They shall return to Egypt." The old state of
bondage and oppression should come back upon them ; or the
things going to befall them of evil should be after the type
of what, their forefathers had experienced under the yoke of
Pharaoh. Yet that the New should not be by any means the
exact repetition of the Old, as it might have been conjectured
from the altered circumstances of the time, so it is expressly
intimated by the prophet himself a few verses afterwards, when
he says, " Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall cat
unclean things in Assyria" (ch. ix. 3) ; and again in ch. xi. 5,
1 Non Simois tibi, nee Xanthus, nee Dorica castra
Defuerint. Alius Latio jarn partus Achilles,
Natus et ipse dea. JBn. vi. 88-90.
2 Trojse renascens alite lugubri
Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur, etc. Carm. L. III. 3, Gl-68.
See also Seneca Medea, 374, etc.
144 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
" He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian
shall be his king." He shall return to Egypt, and still not re
turn ; in other words, the Egypt-state shall come back on him,
though the precise locality and external circumstances shall
differ. In like manner Ezekiel, in ch. iv., foretells, in his own
peculiar and mystical way, the return of the Egypt-state ; and
in ch. xx. speaks of the Lord as going to bring the people again
into the wilderness ; but calls it " the wilderness of the peoples,"
to indicate that the dealing should be the same only in character
with what Israel of old had been subjected to in the desert, not
a bald and formal repetition of the story.
Indeed, God s providence knows nothing in the sacred any
more than in the profane territory of the world s history, of a
literal reproduction of the past. And when prophecy threw its
delineations of the future into the form of the past, and spake
of the things yet to be as a recurrence of those that had already
been, it simply meant that the one should be after the type of
the other, or should in spirit and character resemble it. By
type, however, in such examples as those just referred to, is not
to be understood type in the more special or theological sense in
which the term is commonly used in the present discussions, as
if there was anything in the past that of itself gave prophetic
intimation of the coming future. It is to be understood only
in the general sense of a pattern-form, in accordance with which
the events in prospect were to bear the image of the past. The
prophetical element, therefore, did not properly reside in the
historical transaction referred to in the prophecy, but in the
prophetic word itself, which derived its peculiar form from the
past, and through that a certain degree of light to illustrate its
import. There w y ere, however, other cases in which the typical
in circumstance or action the typical in the proper sense was
similarly combined with a prophecy in word ; and in them we
have a twofold prophetic element one more concealed in the
type, and another more express and definite in the word, but
the two made to coalesce in one prediction.
Of this kind is the prophecy in Zech. vi. 12, 13, where the
prophet takes occasion, from the building of the literal temple
in Jerusalem under the presidency of Joshua, to foretell a simi
lar but higher and more glorious work in the future : " Behold
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 145
the man, whose name is the Branch ; and He shall grow up out
of His place, and lie shall build the temple of the Lord ; even
He shall build the temple of the Lord/ etc. The building of
the temple was itself typical of the incarnation of God in the
person of Christ, and of the raising up in Him of a spiritual
house that should be " an habitation of God through the Spirit."
(John ii. 19 ; Matt. xvi. 18 ; Eph. ii. 20, 22.) But the pro
phecy thus involved in the action is expressly uttered in the pre
diction, which at once explained the type, and sent forward the
expectations of believers toward the contemplated result. Simi
lar, also, is the prediction of Ezekiel, in chap, xxxiv. 23, in which
the good promised in the future to a truly penitent and believing
people, is connected with a return of the person and times of
David : " And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he
shall feed them, even My servant David ; he shall feed them,
and he shall be their shepherd." And the closing prediction of
Malachi, " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." David s
kingdom and reign in Israel were from the first intended to
foreshadow those of Christ; and the work also of Elias, as
preparatory to the Lord s final reckoning with the apostate
commonwealth of Israel, bore a typical respect to the work of
preparation that was to go before the Lord s personal appearance
in the last crisis of the Jewish state. Such might have been
probably conjectured or dimly apprehended from the things
themselves ; but it became comparatively clear, when it w T as
announced in explicit predictions, that a new David and a new
Elias were to appear. The prophetical element was there before
in the type ; but the prophetical word brought it distinctly and
prominently ^out ; yet so as in no respect to materially change
or complicate the meaning. The specific designation of " David,
My servant," and " Elijah the prophet," are in each case alike
intended to indicate, not the literal reproduction of the past, but
the full realization of all that the past typically foretokened of
good. It virtually told the people of God, that in their antici
pations of the coming reality, they might not fear to heighten
to the uttermost the idea which those honoured names were
fitted to suggest ; their anticipations would be amply borne out
by the event, in which still higher prophecy than Elijah s, and
VOL. I. K
146 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
unspeakably nobler service than David s, was to be found in
reserve for the Church. l
III. We pass on to our third supposition, which may seem
to be nearly identical with the last, yet belongs to a stage further
in advance. It is that the typical, not expressly and formally,
but in its essential relations and principles, might be embodied
in an accompanying prediction, which foretold things corre
sponding in nature, but of higher moment and wider import. So
far this supposed case coincides with the last, that in that also
the things predicted might be, and, if referring to Gospel times,
actually were, higher and greater than those of the type. But
it differs, in that this superiority did not there, as it does here,
appear in the terms of the prediction, which simply announced the
recurrence of the type. And it differs still farther, in that there
the type was expressly and formally introduced into the prophecy,
while here it is tacitly assumed, and only its essential relations
and principles are applied to the delineation of some things
analogous and related, but conspicuously loftier and greater.
In this case, then, the typical transactions furnishing the mate
rials for the prophetical delineation, must necessarily form the
background, and the explanatory prediction the foreground, of
the picture. The words of the prophet must describe not the
typical past, but the corresponding and grander future, describe
it, however, under the form of the past, and in connection with
the same fundamental views of the Divine character and govern
ment. So that there must here also be but one sense, though
a twofold prediction : one more vague and indefinite, standing
in the type or prophetic action ; the other more precise and de
finite, furnished by the prophetic word, and directly pointing to
the greater things to come.
1 Those who contend for the actual reappearance of Elijah, because the
epithet of "the prophet," they think, fixes down the meaning to the per
sonal Elijah, may as well contend for the reappearance of David as the
future king ; f or u David, My servant," is as distinctive an appellation of the
one, as "Elijah the prophet" of the other. But in reality they are thus
specified as both exhibiting the highest known ideal the one of king-like
service, the other of prophetic work as preparatory to a Divine manifestation.
And in thinking of them, the people could get the most correct view they
were capable of entertaining of the predicted future.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 147
The supposition now made is actually verified in a consider
able number of prophetical scriptures. Connected with them,
and giving rise to them, there were certain circumstances and
events so ordered by God as to be in a greater or less degree
typical of others under the Gospel. And there was a prophecy
linking the two together, by taking up the truths and relations
embodied in the type, and expanding them so as to embrace the
higher and still future things of God s kingdom, thus at once
indicating the typical design of the past, and announcing in
appropriate terms the coining events of the future.
Let us point, in the first instance, to an illustrative example,
in which the typical element, indeed, was comparatively vague
and general, but which has the advantage of being the first, if
we mistake not, of this species of prophecy, and in some measure
gave the tone to those that followed. The example we refer to
is the song of Hannah (1 Sam. ii. 110), indited by that pious
woman under the inspiration of God, on the occasion of the
birth of Samuel. The history leaves 110 room to doubt that this
was its immediate occasion ; yet, if viewed in reference to that
occasion alone, how comparatively trifling is the theme ! How
strained and magniloquent the expressions ! Hannah speaks of
her " mouth being enlarged over her enemies," of " the bows of
the mighty men being broken," of the " barren bearing seven,"
of the " full hiring themselves out for bread," and other things
of a like nature, all how far exceeding, and we might even
say caricaturing, the occasion, if it has respect merely to the
fact of a woman, hitherto reputed barren, becoming at length
the joyful mother of a child ! Were the song an example of
the inflated style not uncommon in Eastern poetry, we might
not be greatly startled at such grotesque exaggerations ; but
being a portion of that word which is all given by inspiration of
God, and is as silver tried in a furnace, we must banish from
our mind any idea of extravagance or conceit. Indeed, from
the whole strain and character of the song, it is evident that,
though occasioned by the birth of Samuel, it was so far from
having exclusive reference to that event, that the things con
cerning it formed one only of a numerous and important class
pervading the providence of God, and closely connected with
His highest purposes. In a spiritual respect it was a time of
148 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
mournful barrenness and desolation in Israel : " the word of the
Lord was precious, there was no open vision ;" and iniquity was
so rampant as even to be lifting up its insolent front, and
practising its foul abominations in the very precincts of the
sanctuary. How natural, then, for Hannah, when she had got
that child of desire and hope, which she had devoted from his
birth as a Nazarite to the Lord s service, and feeling her soul
moved by a prophetic impulse, to regard herself as specially
raised up to be u a sign and a wonder " to Israel, and to do so
particularly in respect to that principle in the Divine govern
ment, which had so strikingly developed itself in her experience,
but which was destined to receive its grandest manifestation in
the work and kingdom which were to be more peculiarly the
Lord s ! Hence, instead of looking exclusively to her individual
case, and marking the operation of the Lord s hand in what
simply concerned her personal history, she wings her flight
aloft, and takes a comprehensive survey of the general scheme
of God ; noting especially, as she proceeds, the workings of that
pure and gracious sovereignty which delights to exalt an humble
piety, while it pours contempt on the proud and rebellious.
And as every exercise of this principle is but part of a grand
series which culminates in the dispensation of Christ, her song
runs out at the close into a sublime and glowing delineation of
the final results to be achieved by it in connection with His
righteous administration. " The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces ; out of heaven shall He thunder upon
them : the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth ; and He
shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His
anointed." 1
1 The last clause might as well, and indeed better, have been rendered,
u Exalt the horn of His Messiah." Even the Jewish interpreter, Kimchi,
understands it as spoken directly of the Messiah, and the Targum para
phrases, " He shall multiply the kingdom of Messiah." It is the first pas
sage of Scripture where the word occurs in its more distinctive sense, and
is used as a synonym for the consecrated or divine king. It may seem
strange that Hannah should have been the first to introduce this epithet,
and to point so directly to the destined head of the Divine kingdom : it will
even be inexplicable, unless we understand her to have been raised up for a
" sign and a wonder " to Israel, and to have spoken as she was moved by
the Holy Ghost. But the other expressions, especially "the adversaries of
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. MO
Tliis song of Hannah, then, plainly consists of two parts, in
the one of which only the concluding portion it is properly
prophetical. The preceding stanzas are taken up with unfold
ing, from past and current events, the grand spiritual idea ; the
closing ones carry it forward in beautiful and striking applica
tion to the affairs of Messiah s kingdom. In the earlier part it
presents to us the germ of sacred principle unfolded in the type ;
in the latter, it exhibits this rising to its ripened growth and
perfection in the final exaltation and triumph of the King of
Zion. The two differ in respect to the line of things imme
diately contemplated, the facts of history in the one case, in
the other the anticipations of prophecy ; but they agree in being
alike pervaded by one and the same great principle, which, after
floating down the stream of earthly providences, is represented
as ultimately settling and developing itself with resistless energy
in the affairs of Messiah s kingdom. And as if to remove every
shadow of doubt as to this being the purport and design of
Hannah s song, when we open the record of that better era,
which she only descried afar off in the horizon, we find the
Virgin Mary, in her song of praise at the announcement of
Messiah s birth, re-echoing the sentiments, and sometimes even
repeating the very words, of the mother of Samuel : " My soul
doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of His hand
maiden. He hath showed strength with His arm : He hath
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath
put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low
degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things ; and the
rich He hath sent empty away. He hath holpen His servant
Israel, in remembrance of His mercy ; as He spake to our
fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever." "Why should
the Spirit, breathing at such a time in the soul of Mary, have
turned her thoughts so nearly into the channel that had been
struck out ages before by the pious Hannah ? Or why should
the circumstances connected with the birth of Hannah s Nazarite
the Lord shall be destroyed, and the ends of the earth shall be judged,"
show that it really was of the kingdom as possessed of such a head that she
spoke. And the idea of Grotius and the Rationalists, that she referred in
the first instance to Saul, is without foundation.
150 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
offspring have proved the occasion of strains which so distinctly
pointed to the manifestation of the King of Glory, and so
closely harmonized with those actually sung in celebration of
the event ? Doubtless to mark the connection really subsisting
between the two. It is the Spirit s own intimation of His
ulterior design in transactions long since past, and testimonies
delivered centuries before, namely, to herald the advent of
Messiah, and familiarize the children of the kingdom with the
essential character of the coming dispensation. 1
Hannah s song was the first specimen of that combination
of prophecy with type, which is now under consideration ; but
it was soon followed by others, in which both the prophecy was
more extended, and the typical element in the transactions that
gave rise to it was more marked and specific. The examples
we refer to are to be found in the Messianic psalms, which also
resemble the song of Hannah in being of a lyrical character,
and thence admitting of a freer play of feeling on the part of
the individual writer than could fitly be introduced into simple
prophecy. But this again principally arose from the close con
nection typically between the present and the future, whereby
the feelings originated by the one naturally incorporated them-
1 The view now given of Hannah s song presents it in a much higher, as
we conceive it does also in a truer light, than that exhibited by Bishop
Jebb, who speaks of it in a style that seems scarcely compatible with any
proper belief in its inspiration. The song appears, in his estimation, to
have been the mere effusion of Hannah s private, and, in great part, un-
sanctified feelings. " We cannot but feel," he says, " that her exultation
partook largely of a spirit far beneath that which enjoins the love of our
enemies, and which forbids personal exultation over a fallen foe." He re
gards it as "unquestionable, that previous sufferings had not thoroughly
subdued her temper, that she could not suppress the workings of a retali-
ative spirit, and was thus led to dwell, not on the peaceful glories of his
(Samuel s) priestly and prophetic rule, but on his future triumphs over the
Philistine armies " (Sacred Literature, p. 397). If such were indeed the
character of Hannah s song, we may be assured it would not have been so
closely imitated by the blessed Virgin. But it is manifestly wrong to re
gard Hannah as speaking of her merely personal enemies, her language
would otherwise be chargeable with vicious extravagance, as well as un-
sanctified feeling. She identifies herself throughout with the Lord s cause
and people ; and it is simply her zeal for righteousness which expresses
itself in a spirit of exultation over prostrate enemies.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 151
selves with the delineation of the other. And as it was the
institution of the temporal kingdom in the person and house of
David which here formed the ground and the occasion of the
prophetic delineation, there was no part of the typical arrange
ments tinder the ancient dispensation which more fully admitted,
or, to prevent misapprehension, more obviously required, the
accompaniment of a series of lyrical prophecies such as that
contained in the Messianic psalms.
For the institution of a temporal kingdom in the hands of
an Israelitish family involved a very material change in the
external framework of the theocracy ; and a change that of
itself was fitted to rivet the minds of the people more to the
earthly and visible, and take them off from the invisible and
Divine. The constitution under which they were placed before
the appointment of a king though it did not absolutely pre
clude such an appointment yet seemed as if it would rather
suffer than be improved by so broad and palpable an introduction
of the merely human element. It was till then a theocracy in
the strictest sense; a commonwealth that had no recognised
head but God, and placed everything essentially connected with
life and well-being under His immediate presidence and direction.
The land of the covenant was emphatically God s land 1 the
people that dwelt in it were His peculiar property and heritage 2
the laws which they were bound to obey were His statutes
and judgments 3 and the persons appointed to interpret and
administer them were His representatives, and on this account
even sometimes bore His name. 4 It was the peculiar and dis
tinguishing glory of Israel as a nation, that they stood in this
near relationship to God, and that which more especially called
forth the rapturous eulogy of Moses, 5 " Happy art thou, O
Israel : who is like unto thee ! The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms." It was a glory,
however, which the people themselves were too carnal for the
most part to estimate aright, and of which they never appeared
more insensible than when they sought to be like the Gentiles,
1 Lev. xxv. 23 ; Ps. x. 16 ; Isa. xiv. 25 ; Jer. ii. 7, etc.
2 Ex. xix. 5 ; Ps. xciv. 5 ; Jer. ii. 7 ; Joel iii. 2.
3 Ex. xv. 26, xviii. 16, etc. 4 Ex. xxii. 28 ; Ps. Ixxxii. G.
5 Deut. xxxiii. 26, 29.
152 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
by having a king appointed over them. For what was it but,
in effect, to seek that they might lose their peculiar distinction
among the nations ? that God might retire to a greater distance
from them, and might no longer be their immediate guardian
and sovereign ?
Nor was this the only evil likely to arise out of the proposed
change. Everything under the Old Covenant bore reference
to the future and more perfect dispensation of the Gospel ; and
the ultimate reason of any important feature or material change
in respect to the former, can never be understood without taking
into account the bearing it might have on the future state and
prospects of men under the Gospel. But how could any change
in the constitution of ancient Israel, and especially such a
change as the people contemplated, when they desired a king
after the manner of the Gentiles, be adopted without altering
matters in this respect to the worse ? The dispensation of the
Gospel was to be, in a peculiar sense, the " kingdom of heaven,
or of God," having for its high end and aim the establishment
of a near and blessed intercourse between God and men. It
attains to its consummation when the vision seen by St John,
and described after the pattern of the constitution actually set
up in the wilderness, comes into fulfilment when " the taber
nacle of God is with men, and He dwells wdth them." Of this
consummation it was a striking and impressive image that was
presented in the original structure of the Israelitish common
wealth, wherein God Himself sustained the office of king, and
had His peculiar residence and appropriate manifestations of
glory in the midst of His people. And when they, in their
carnal affection for a worldly institute, clamoured for an earthly
sovereign, they not only discovered a lamentable indifference
towards what constituted their highest honour, but betrayed also
a want of discernment and faith in regard to God ? s prospective
and ultimate design in connection with their provisional eco
nomy. They gave conclusive proof that " they did not see to
the end of that which was to be abolished," and preferred a
request which, if granted according to their expectation, would
in a most important respect have defeated the object of their
theocratic constitution.
We need not, therefore, be surprised that God should have
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 153
expressed His dissatisfaction with the proposal made by the
people for the appointment of a king to them, and should have
regarded it as a substantial rejection of Himself, and a desire
that He should not reign over them. (1 Sam. viii. 7.) But
why, then, did He afterwards accede to it ? And why did He
make choice of the things connected with it, as an historical
occasion and a typical ground for shadowing forth the nature
and glories of Messiah s kingdom? The Divine procedure in
this, though apparently capricious, was in reality marked by the
highest wisdom, and affords one of the finest examples to be
found in Old Testament history of that overruling providence,
by which God so often averts the evil which men s devices are
fitted to produce, and render them subservient to the greatest
good.
The appointment of a king as the earthly head of the com
monwealth, we have said, was not absolutely precluded by the
theocratic constitution. It was from the first contemplated by
Moses as a thing which the people would probably desire, and
in which they were not to be gainsayed, but were only to be
directed into the proper method of accomplishing it. (Deut. xvii.
1420.) It was even possible if the matter was rightly gone
about, and the Divine sanction obtained respecting it to turn
it to profitable account, in familiarizing the minds of men with
what was destined to form the grand feature of the Messiah s
kingdom the personal indwelling of the Divine in the human
nature and so to acquire for it the character of an important
step in the preparatory arrangements for the kingdom. This is
what was actually done. After the people had been solemnly
admonished of their guilt in requesting the appointment of a
king on their worldly principles, they were allowed to raise one
of their number to the throne not, however, as absolute and
independent sovereign, but only as the deputy of Jehovah ; that
he might simply rule in the name, and in subordination to the
will, of God. 1 For this reason his throne was called "the
throne of the Lord," 2 on which, as the Queen of Sheba ex
pressed it to Solomon, he was " set to be king for the Lord his
God ;" 3 and the kingly government itself was afterwards desig-
1 See Warburton s Legation of Moses, B. V. sect. 3.
2 1 Chron. xxix. 23. 3 2 Cliron. ix. 8.
154 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
nated "the kingdom of the Lord." 1 For the same reason, no
doubt, it was that Samuel " wrote in a book the manner of the
kingdom, and laid it up before the Lord ;" 2 that the testimony in
behalf of its derived and vicegerent nature might be perpetuated.
And to render the Divine purpose in this respect manifest to all
who had eyes to see and ears to hear, the Lord allowed the
choice first to fall on one who as the representative of the
people s earthly wisdom and prowess was little disposed to rule
in humble subordination to the will and authority of Heaven,
and was therefore supplanted by another who should act as
God s representative, and bear distinctively the name of His
servant*
It was, therefore, in this second person, David, that the
kingly administration in Israel properly began ; he was the root
and founder of the kingdom as a kingdom, in which the
Divine and human stood first in an official, as they were ulti
mately to stand in a personal union. And to make the pre
paratory and the final in this respect properly harmonize and
adapt themselves to each other, the Lord, in the first instance,
ordered matters connected with the institution of the kingly
government, so as to render the beginning an image of the end
typical throughout of Messiah s work and kingdom. And
then, lest the typical bearing of things should be lost sight of
in consequence of their present interest or importance, He gave
in connection with them the word of prophecy, which, pro
ceeding on the ground of their typical import, pointed the ex
pectations of the Church to corresponding but far higher and
greater things still to come. In this way, what must otherwise
have tended to veil the purpose of God, and obstruct the main
design of His preparatory dispensation, was turned into one of
the most effective means of revealing and promoting it. The
earthly head, that now under God stood over the members of
the commonwealth, instead of overshadowing His authority,
only presented this more distinctly to their view, and served as
1 2 Chron. xiii. 8. 2 1 Sam. x. 25.
3 This appellation is used of David far more frequently than of any other
person. Upwards of thirty times it is expressly spoken of David ; and
in the Psalms he is ever presenting himself in the character of the Lord s
servant.
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 155
a stepping-stone to faith, in enabling it to rise nearer to the
apprehension of that personal indwelling of Godhead the true
Immanuel which was to constitute the foundation and the
glory of the Gospel dispensation. Not only was the work of
God s preparatory arrangements not arrested, and the prospec
tive anticipation of the future not marred; but occasion was
taken to unfold this future in its more essential features with
an air of individuality and distinctness, with a variety of detail
and vividness of colouring, not to be met with in any other por
tions of prophetic Scripture.
We refer for illustration to a single example of this com
bination of prophecy with type (others will be noticed, and in
a somewhat different connection, in the Appendix) the second
Psalm. The production as to form is a kind of inaugural
hymn, intended to celebrate the appointment and final triumph
of Jehovah s king. The heathen nations are represented as
foolishly opposing it (vers. 1, 2) ; they agree among themselves,
if the appointment should be made, practically to disown and
resist it (ver. 3) ; the Almighty, however, perseveres in His
purpose, scorning the rebellious opposition of such impotent
adversaries (ver. 4) ; the eternal decree goes forth, that the
anointed King is enthroned on Zion ; that being Jehovah s Son,
He is made the heir of all things, even to the uttermost bounds
of the habitable globe (vers. 5-9). And in consideration of
what has thus been decreed and ratified in heaven, the psalm
concludes with a word of friendly counsel and admonition to
earthly potentates and rulers, exhorting them to submit in time
to the sway of this glorious King, and forewarning them of
the inevitable ruin of resistance. That in all this we can trace
the lines of Messiah s history, is obvious at a glance. Even
the old Jewish doctors, as we learn by the quotation from
Solomon Jarchi, given by Venema, agreed that " it should be
expounded of King Messiah;" but he adds, "In accordance
with the literal sense, and that it may be used against the
heretics (i.e., Christians), it is proper to explain it as relating
to David himself." Strange, that this idea, the offspring of
rabbinical artifice, seeking to withdraw an argument from the
cause of Christianity, should have so generally commended it
self to Christian interpreters ! But if by literal sense is to be
156 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
understood the plain and natural import of the words employed,
what ground is there for such an interpretation ? David was
not opposed in his appointment to the throne of Israel by
heathen nations or rulers, who knew and cared comparatively
little about it ; nor was his being anointed king coincident with
his being set on the holy hill of Zion ; nor, after being estab
lished in the kingdom, did he ever dream of pressing any claims
of dominion on the kings and rulers of the earth : his wars were
uniformly wars of defence, and not of conquest. So palpable,
indeed, is the discordance between the lines of David s history,
and the lofty terms of the psalm, that the opinion which ascribes
it in the literal sense to David, may now be regarded as com
paratively antiquated; and some even of those who formerly
espoused it (such as Rosenmuller), have at length owned, that
" it cannot well be understood as applying either to David or to
Solomon, much less to any of the later Hebrew kings, and that
the judgment of the more ancient Hebrews is to be followed,
who considered it as a celebration of the mighty King whom
they expected under the name of the Messiah."
But has the psalm, then, no connection with the life and
kingdom of David? Unquestionably it has; and a connection
so close, that what took place in him was at once the beginning
and the image of what, amid higher relations, and on a more
extended scale, was to be accomplished by the subject of the
psalm. While the terms in which the King and the kingdom
there celebrated are spoken of, stretch far above the line of
things that belonged to David, they yet bear throughout the
mark and impress of these. In both alike we see a sovereign
choice and fixed appointment, on the part of God, to the office
of king in the fullest sense among men an opposition of the
most violent and heathenish nature to withstand and nullify the
appointment the gradual and successive overthrow of all the
obstacles raised against the purpose of Heaven, and the exten
sion of the sphere of empire (still partly future in the case of
Messiah) till it reached the limits of the Divine grant. The
lines of history in the two cases are entirely parallel ; there is
all the correspondence we expect between type and antitype ;
but the prophecy which marks the connection between them,
while it was occasioned by the purpose of God respecting David,
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 157
and derived from his history the particular mould in which it
was cast, was applicable only to Him who, with the properties
of a human nature and an earthly throne, was to possess those
also of the heavenly and divine.
We shall not here go further into detail respecting this class
of prophecies, which belong chiefly to the Psalms ; but we must
remark, that as it was their object to explain the typical character
of David s calling and kingdom, and to connect this with the
higher things to come, we may reasonably expect there will be
some portions in the Messianic psalms which are alike applicable
to type and antitype ; and also entire psalms, in which there may
be room for doubting to which of the two they may most fitly
be referred. In some the distinctive, the superhuman and divine,
properties of the Messiah s person and kingdom are so broadly
and characteristically delineated (as in Ps. ii., xxii., xlv., Ixxii.,
ex.), that it is impossible by any fair interpretation of the lan
guage to understand the description of another than Christ.
But there are others in which the merely human elements are
so strongly depicted (such as Ps. xl., Ixix., cix.), that not a
few of the traits might doubtless be found in the bearer also of
the earthly kingdom ; while still the excessive darkness of the
picture, as a whole, on the one side, and the magnitude of the
results and interests connected with it, on the other, shut us up
to the conclusion that Christ, in His work of humiliation and
His kingdom of blessing and glory, is the real subject of the
prophecy. Viewed as an entire and prospective delineation, the
theme is still one, and the sense not manifold, but simple. There
are again others, however, of which Ps. xli. may be taken as a
specimen, in which the delineation throughout is as applicable
to the bearer of the earthly as to that of the heavenly kingdom ;
so that, if regarded as a prophecy at all, it can only be in the
way explained under our first supposition, as an historical de
scription of things that happened under typical relations, from
which they derived a prophetical element.
Such varieties are no more than what might have been ex
pected in the class of sacred lyrics now under consideration ; and
the rather so, as they were composed for the devotional use of
the Church at a time when she required as well to -be refreshed
and strengthened by the faith of the typical past, as to be
158 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
cheered and animated by the hope of the still grander antitypical
future. It was necessary that she should be taught so to look
for the one as not to lose sight of the other ; but rather, in what
had already occurred, to find the root and promise of what was
to be hereafter. The word of Nathan to David (2 Sam. vii.
416), which properly began the series, and laid the founda
tion of further developments, presented the matter in this light.
David is there associated with his filial successor, as alike con
nected with the institution of the kingdom in its primary and
inferior aspect ; and the high honour was conceded to his house
of furnishing the royal dynasty that was destined to preside for
ever in God s name over the affairs of men. But this for ever,
emphatically used in the promise, evidently pointed to a time
when the relations of the kingdom, in its then provisional and
circumscribed form, should give way to others immensely greater
and higher. It pointed to a commingling of the divine and
human, the heavenly and the earthly, in another manner than
could possibly be realized in the case either of David himself, or
of any ordinary descendant from his loins. And it became one
of the leading objects of David s prophetical calling, and of
those who were his immediate successors in the prophetical func
tion, to unfold, after the manner already described, something
of that ulterior purpose of Heaven, which, though included, was
still but obscurely indicated, in the fundamental prophecy of
Nathan. 1
IV. But we have still to notice another conceivable combina
tion of type with prophecy. It is possible, we said, that the
typical transactions might themselves be still future ; and might,
in a prophetic word, be partly described, partly presupposed, as
a ground for the delineation of other things still more distant, in
1 According to the view now given, there is no need for that alternating
process which is so commonly resorted to in the explanation of Nathan s
prophecy, by which this one part is made to refer to Solomon and his im
mediate successors, and that other to Christ. There is no need for formally
splitting it up into such portions, each pointing to different quarters ; nor
can the understanding find satisfaction in this method. The prophecy is to
be taken as an organic whole, as the kingdom also is of which it speaks.
David reigned in the Lord s name, and the Lord, in the fulness of time, was
born to occupy David s throne a mutual interconnection. The kingdom
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 159
respect to which they were to hold a typical relation. The
difference between this and the last supposition is quite im
material, in so far as any principle is involved. It makes no
essential change in the nature of the relation, that the typical
transactions forming the groundwork of the prophetical delinea
tion should have been contemplated as future, and not as past
or present. It is true that the prophet was God s messenger, in
an especial sense, to the men of his own age ; and as such usually
delivered messages, which were called forth by what had actually
occurred, and bore its peculiar impress. But he was not neces
sarily tied to that. As from the present he could anticipate the
still undeveloped future, so there was nothing to hinder if the
circumstances of the Church might require it that he should
also at times realize as present a nearer future, and from that
anticipate another more remote. In doing so he would naturally
transport himself into the position of those who were to witness
that nearer future, which would then be contemplated as hold
ing much the same relation typically to the higher things in
prospect, as in the case last considered : that is, the matter-of-
fact prophecy involved in the typical transactions viewed as
already present, would furnish to the prophet s eye the form and
aspect under which he would exhibit the corresponding events
yet to be expected.
The only addition which the view now suggested makes to
the one generally held, is, that we suppose the prophet, while he
spake as from the midst of circumstances future, though not
distant, recognised in these something of a typical nature ; and
on the basis of that as the type, unfolded the greater and more
distant antitype. There is plainly nothing incredible or even
improbable in such a supposition, especially if the nearer future
already lay within the vision of the Church. The circum-
throughout is God s, only existing in an embryo state, while presided over
by David and his merely human descendants ; and rising to its ripened form,
as soon as it passes into the hands of one who, by virtue of His Divine pro
perties, was fitted to bear the glory. The prophecy, therefore, is to be re
garded as a general promise of the connection of the kingdom with David s
person and line, including Christ as belonging to that line, after the flesh ;
but in respect to the element of eternity, the absolute perpetuity guaranteed
in the promise, it not only admitted, but required, the possession of a nature
in Christ higher unspeakably than He could derive from David.
160 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
stances, however, giving rise to prophecies of this description
were not likely to be of very frequent occurrence. They could
only be expected in those more peculiar emergencies when it
became needful for the Church s warning or consolation to over
shoot, as it were, the things more immediately in prospect, and
fix the eye on others more remote in point of time, though in
nature most closely connected with them.
Now, at one remarkable period of her history, the Old Tes
tament Church was certainly in such circumstances the period
preceding and during the Babylonish exile. From the time
that this calamity had become inevitable, the prophets, as already
noticed, had spoken of it as a second Egypt a new bondage to
the power of the world, from which the Church required to be
delivered by a new manifestation of redemptive grace. But a
second redemption after the manner of the first would obviously
no longer suffice to restore the heart of faith to assured confi
dence, or fill it with satisfying expectations of corning good.
The redemption from Egypt, with all its marvellous accompani
ments and happy results, had yet failed to provide an effectual
security against overwhelming desolation. And if the redemp
tion from Babylon might have brought, in the fullest sense, a
restoration to the land of Canaan, and the re-establishment of
the temple service ; yet, if this were all the spirit of prophecy
could descry of coming good, there must still have been room
for fear to enter : there could scarcely fail even to be sad fore
bodings of new desolations likely to arise and undo again the
whole that had been accomplished. At such a period, therefore,
the prophet had a double part to perform, when charged with
the commission to comfort the people of God. He had, in the
first instance, to declare the fixed purpose of Heaven to visit
Babylon for her sins, and thereby afford a door of escape for
the captive children of the covenant, that as a people saved anew
they might return to their ancient heritages. But he had to do
more than this. He had to take his station, as it were, on the
floor of that nearer redemption, and from thence direct the eye
of hope to another and higher, of which it was but the imperfect
shadow a redemption which should lay the foundation of the
Church s well-being so broad and deep, that the former troubles
could no longer return, and heights of prosperity and blessing
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 161
should be reached entirely unknown in the past. Tims alone
could a ground of consolation be provided for the people of God,
really adequate to the emergencies of that dismal time, when all
that was of God seemed ready to perish, under the combined
force of internal corruption and outward violence.
It was precisely in this way that the prophet Isaiah sought to
comfort the Church of God by inditing the later portion of his
writings (ch. xl.-lxvi.), in which we have the most important
example of the class of prophecies now under consideration
The central object in the whole of this magnificent chain of
prophecy, is the appearance, work, and kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ His spirit and character, His sufferings and
triumphs, the completeness of His redemption, the safety and
blessedness of His people, the certain overthrow of His enemies,
and the final glory of His kingdom. The manner in which
this prophetic discourse is entered on, might alone satisfy us
that such is in reality its main theme. For the voice which
there meets us, of one crying in the wilderness, is that to which,
according to all the evangelists, John the Baptist appealed, as
announcing beforehand his office and mission to the Church of
God. And if the forerunner is found at the threshold, who
should chiefly occupy the interior of the building but He whom
John was specially sent to make known to Israel ? The sub
stance of the message also, as briefly indicated there, entirely
corresponds : for it speaks not, as is often loosely represented,
of the people s return to Jerusalem, but of the Lord s return to
His people ; it announces a coming revelation of His glory,
which all flesh should see ; and proclaims to the cities of Judah
the tidings, Behold your God ! Wo are not to be understood
as meaning, that the Lord might not in a sense be said to come
to His people, when in their behalf He brought down the pride
of Babylon, and laid open for them a way of return to their
native land. A reference to this more secret and preparatory
revelation of Himself may certainly be understood, both here
and in several kindred representations that follow ; yet not as
their direct and immediate object, but rather as something pre
supposed, similar in kind, though immensely inferior in degree,
to the proper reality. There are passages, indeed, so general in
the truths and principles they enunciate, that they cannot with
VOL. I. L
162 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
propriety be limited to one period of the Church s history any
more than to another. And again, there are others, especially
the portion reaching from ch. xliv. 24 to xlviii. 22, as also ch. li.,
Hi., which refer more immediately to the events connected with
the deliverance from Babylon, as things in themselves perfectly
certain, and fitted to awaken confidence in regard to the greater
things that were yet destined to be accomplished. He who
could speak of Babylon as already prostrate in the dust, though
no shade had yet come over the lustre of her glory who, at the
very moment she was the scourge and terror of the nations,
could picture to himself the time when she should be seen as a
spoiled and forlorn captive who could behold the once weeping
exiles of Judea, escaped from her grasp, and sent back with
honour to revive the glories of Jerusalem, while the proud
destroyer was left to sink and moulder into irrecoverable ruin
He who could foresee all this as in a manner present, and com
mit to His Church the prophetic announcement generations
before it had been fulfilled, might well claim from His people
an implicit faith, when giving intimation of a work still to be
done, the greatness of which should surpass all thought, as its
blessings should extend to all lands (ch. xlv. 17, 22, xlix. 18-26).
Thus the deliverance accomplished from the yoke of Babylon
formed a fitting prelude and stepping-stone to the main subject
of the prophecy the revelation of God in the person and work
of His Son. The certainty of the one a certainty soon to be
realized was a pledge of the ultimate certainty of the other ;
and the character also of the former, as a singular and unex
pected manifestation of the Lord s power to deliver His people
and lay their enemies in the dust, was a prefiguration of what
was to be accomplished once for all in the salvation to be wrought
out by Jesus Christ. 1
There are few portions of Old Testament prophecy, which
1 The same view substantially of this portion of Isaiah s writings was
given by Vitringa, who thus suras up the leading topics of discourse :
" The great mystery of the manifestation of the kingdom of God and His
righteousness in the world through the Messiah, His forerunner, and
apostles, with the revival of an elect Church, then reduced to a very small
number, with its more remarkable preceding signs, and the means that
should be subservient to the whole work of grace, among which preceding
COMBINATION OF TYPE WITH PROPHECY. 163
altogether resemble the one we have been considering. Perhaps
that which approaches nearest to it, in the mode of combining
type with prophecy, is the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, which
is not a direct and simple delineation of the judgments that
were destined to alight upon Idumea, but rather an ideal repre
sentation of the judgments preparing to alight on the enemies
generally of God s people, founded upon the approaching
desolations of Edom, which it contemplates as the type of the
destruction that awaits all the adversaries. Still more closely
corresponding, however, is our Lord s prophecy regarding the
destruction of Jerusalem and His own final advent to judge the
world, in the twenty-fourth chapter of St Matthew s Gospel ; in
which, undoubtedly, the nearer future is regarded as the type of
the higher and more remote. It would almost seem as if the
two events were, to a certain extent, thrown together in the
prophetic delineation; for the efforts that have been made to
separate the portions strictly applicable to each, have never
wholly succeeded ; and more, perhaps, than any other part of
prophetic Scripture is there the appearance here of something
like a double sense. What reasons may have existed for this we
can still but imperfectly apprehend. One principal reason, we
may certainly conclude, was, that it did not accord with our
Lord s design, as it would not have consisted with His people s
good, to have exhibited very precise and definite prognostics of
His second coming. The exact period behoved to be shrouded
almost to the very last in mystery, and it seemed to Divine
wisdom the fittest course to order the circumstances connected
with the final act of judgment on the typical people and terri
tory, so as to serve, at the same time, for signs and tokens of the
last great act of judgment on the world at large. As the acts
themselves corresponded, so there should also be a correspondence
in the manner of their accomplishment ; and to contemplate
the one as imaged in the other, without being able in all respects
signs the deliverance from Babylon by Cyrus, in connection with the de
struction of Babylon itself, as typical of the overthrow of all idolatrous and
Satanic power, are chiefly dwelt upon, in like manner as the conviction both
of Jews and Gentiles concerning the vanity of idols and the truth of God
and His spiritual worship, hold the most prominent place among the con
current means. 1
164 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to draw the line very accurately between them, was the whole
that could safely be permitted to believers.
The result, then, of the preceding investigation is, that there
is in Scripture a fourfold combination of type with prophecy.
In the first of these the prophetic import lies in the type, and in
the word only as descriptive of the type. In the others there
was not a double sense, but a double prophecy a typical pro
phecy in action, coupled with a verbal prophecy in word ; not
uniformly combined, however, but variously modified: in one
class a distinct typical action, having associated with it an express
prophetical announcement ; in another, the typical lying only as
the background on which the spirit of prophecy raised the pre
diction of a corresponding but much grander future ; and in still
another, the typical belonging to a nearer future, which was
realized as present, and taken as the occasion and groundwork of
a prophecy respecting a future greater, and also more distant.
It is in this last department alone that there is anything like a
mixing up of two subjects together, and a consequent difficulty
in determining when precisely the language refers to the nearer,
and when to the more remote transactions. Even then, how
ever, only in rare cases ; and with this slight exception, there
is nothing that carries the appearance of confusion or ambiguity.
Each part holds its appropriate place, and the connection sub
sisting between them, in its various shapes and forms, is very
much what might have been expected in a system so complex
and many-sided as that to which they belonged.
II. We proceed now to offer some remarks on the views
generally held on the subject of the prophecies which have
passed under our consideration. They fall into two opposite
sections. Overlooking the real connection in such cases between
type and prophecy, and often misapprehending the proper im
port of the language, the opinion contended for, on the one side,
has been, that the predictions contain a double sense the one
primary and the other secondary, or the one literal and the other
mystical ; while, on the contrary side, it has been maintained
that the predictions have but one meaning, and when applied in
New Testament Scripture, in a way not accordant with that
meaning, it is held to be a simple accommodation of the words.
ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE. 165
A brief examination of the two opposing views will be sufficient
for our purpose.
1. And, first, in regard to the view which advocates the
theory of the double sense. Here it has been laid down as a
settled canon of interpretation, that " the same prophecies fre
quently refer to different events, the one near and the other
remote the one temporal, the other spiritual, and perhaps
eternal ; that the expressions are partly applicable to one and
partly to another; and that what has not been fulfilled in the
first, we must apply to the second." If so, the conclusion seems
inevitable, that there must be a painful degree of uncertainty
and confusion resting on such portions of prophetic Scripture.
And the ambiguity thus necessarily pervading them, must, one
would think, have rendered them of comparatively little value,
whether originally as a ground of hope to the Old Testament
Church, or now as an evidence of faith to the New.
Great ingenuity was certainly shown by Warburton in labour
ing to establish the grounds of this double sense, without mate
rially impairing in any respect the validity of the prophecy.
The view advocated by him, however, lies open to two serious ob
jections, which have been powerfully urged against it, especially
by Bishop Marsh, and which have demonstrated its arbitrariness.
1. In the first place, while it proceeds upon the supposition, that
the double sense of prophecy is quite analogous to the double
sense of allegory, there is in reality an essential difference be
tween them. "When we interpret a prophecy, to which a
double meaning is ascribed, the one relating to the Jewish, the
other to the Christian dispensation, we are in either case con
cerned with an interpretation of words. For the same words
which, according to one interpretation, are applied to one event,
are, according to another interpretation, applied to another
event. But in the interpretation of an allegory, we are con
cerned only in the first instance with an interpretation of words ;
the second sense, which is usually called the allegorical, being an
interpretation of tilings. The interpretation of the words gives
nothing more than the plain and simple narratives themselves
(the allegory generally assuming the form of a narrative) ;
whereas the moral of the allegory is learnt by an application of
the things signified by those words to other things which resemble
166 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
them, and which the former were intended to suggest. There
is a fundamental difference, therefore, between the interpreta
tion of an allegory, and the interpretation of a prophecy with a
double sense." 1 2. The view of Warburton is, besides, liable to
the objection, that it not only affixes a necessary darkness and
obscurity to the prophecies having the double sense, but also
precludes the existence of any other prophecies more plain,
direct, and explicit until at least the dispensation, under which
the prophecies were given, and for which the double sense
specially adapted them, was approaching its termination. He
contends that the veiled meaning of the prophecies was neces
sary, in order at once to awaken some general expectations
among the Jews of better things to come, and, at the same time,
to prevent these from being so distinctly understood as to weaken
their regard to existing institutions. It is fatal to this view of
the matter, that in reality many of the most direct and per
spicacious prophecies concerning the Messiah were contem
poraneous with those which are alleged to possess the double
meaning and the veiled reference to the Messiah. If, therefore,
the Divine method were such as to admit only of the one class,
it must have been defeated by the other. And it must also have
been not so properly a ground of blame as a matter of necessity,
arising from the very circumstances of their position, that the
Jews " could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was to
be abolished." (2 Cor. iii. 13.) The reverse, however, was
actually the case ; for the more clearly they perceived the mean
ing of the prophecies, and the end of their symbolical institu
tions, the more heartily did they enter into the design of God,
and the more nearly attain the condition which it became them
to occupy.
These objections, however, apply chiefly to that vindication
of the double sense which came from the hand of Warburton,
and was interwoven with his peculiar theory. The opinion has
since been advocated in a manner that guards it against both
objections, and is put, perhaps, in its most approved form by
Davison. " What," he asks, " is the double sense ? Not the
convenient latitude of two unconnected senses, wide of each
other, and giving room to a fallacious ambiguity, but the com-
1 Marsh s Lectures, p. 444.
ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE. 167
bination of two related, analogous, and harmonizing, though
disparate, subjects, each clear and definite in itself ; implying
a twofold truth in the prescience, and creating an aggravated
difficulty, and thereby an accumulated proof, in the completion.
For a case in point : to justify the predictions concerning the
kingdom of David in their double force, it must be shown of
them, that they hold in each of their relations, and in each were
fulfilled. So that the double sense of prophecy, in its true idea,
is a check upon the pretences of a vague and unappropriated
prediction, rather than a door to admit them. But this is not
all. For if the prediction distribute its sense into two remote
branches or systems of the Divine economy ; if it show not only
what is to take place in distant times, but describe also different
modes of God s appointment, though holding a certain and
intelligent resemblance to each other ; such prediction becomes
not only more convincing in the argument, but more instructive
in the doctrine, because it expresses the correspondence of God s
dispensations in their points of agreement, as well as His fore
knowledge." l
This representation so far coincides with the one given in
the preceding pages, that it virtually recognises a combination
of type with prophecy ; but differs in that it supposes both to
have been included in the prediction, the one constituting the
primary, the other the secondary, sense of its terms. And,
undoubtedly, according to this scheme as well as our own, the
correspondence between God s dispensations might be sufficiently
exhibited, both in regard to doctrine and general harmony of
arrangement. But when it is contended further, that prophecy
with such a double sense, instead of rendering the evidence it
furnishes of Divine foresight more vague and unsatisfactory,
only supplies an accumulated proof of it by creating an aggra
vated difficulty in the fulfilment, it seems to be forgotten that
the terms of the prediction, to admit of such a duplicate fulfil
ment, must have been made so much more general and vague.
But it is the precision and defimteness of the terms in a pre
diction which, when compared with the facts in providence that
verify them, chiefly produce in our minds a conviction of Divine
foresight and direction. And in so far as prophecies might have
1 Davison on Prophecy, p. 196.
168 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
been constructed to comprehend two series of disparate events,
holding in each of the relations, and in each fulfilled, it could
only be by dispensing with the more exact criteria, which we
cannot help regarding in such cases as the most conclusive
evidence of prophetic inspiration.
But as it was by no means the sole object of prophecy to
provide this evidence, so predictions without such exact criteria
are by no means wanting in the word of God. There are pro
phecies which were not so much designed to foretell definite
events, as to unfold great prospects and results, in respect to
the manifestation of God s purposes of grace and truth toward
men. Such prophecies were of necessity general and compre
hensive in their terms, and admitted of manifold fulfilments.
It is of them that we would understand the singularly pregnant
and beautiful remark of Lord Bacon in the Second Book of the
Advancement of Learning, that "Divine prophecies, being of
the nature of their Author, with whom a thousand years are
but as one day, are therefore not fulfilled punctually at once,
but have springing and germinant accomplishment ; though the
height or fulness of them may refer to some one age." The
very first prophecy ever uttered to fallen man, the promise
given of a seed through the woman which should bruise the
head of the serpent, and that afterwards given to Abraham of
a seed of blessing, may be fitly specified as illustrations of the
principle ; since in either case though by virtue, not of a double
sense, but of a wide and comprehensive import a fulfilment
from the first was constantly proceeding, while " the height and
fulness" of the predicted good could only be reached in the
redemption of Christ and the glories of His kingdom.
To return, however, to the matter at issue, we have yet to
press our main objection to the theory of the double sense of
prophecy ; we dispute the fact on which it is founded, that
there really are prophecies (with the partial exceptions already
noticed) predictive of similar though disparate series of events,
strictly applicable to each, and in each finding their fulfilment.
This necessarily forms the main position of the advocates of the
double sense ; and when brought to particulars, they constantly
fail to establish it. The terms of the several predictions are
sure to be put to the torture, in order to get one of the two
ALLEGED DOUBLE SENSE. 169
senses extracted from them. And the violent interpretations
resorted to for the purpose of effecting this, afford one of the
most striking proofs of the blinding influence which a theoreti
cal bias may exert over the mind. Such psalms, for example,
as the second and forty-fifth, which are so distinctly charac
teristic of the Messiah, that some learned commentators have
abandoned their early predilections to interpret them wholly of
Him, are yet ascribed by the advocates of the double sense as
well to David as to Christ. Nay, by a singular inversion of
the usual meaning of words, they call the former the literal,
and the latter their figurative or secondary sense, although
this last is the only one the words can strictly bear.
There is no greater success in most other cases ; let us take
but one example : " Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell ;
neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt make known to me the path of life : in Thy presence
is fulness of joy ; and at Thy right hand are pleasures for ever
more." These words in the sixteenth Psalm were applied by
the Apostle Peter to Christ, as finding in the events of His
history their only proper fulfilment. David, he contends, could
not have been speaking directly of himself, since he had seen
corruption ; and instead of regaining the path of life, and ascend
ing into the presence of God (namely, in glorified humanity),
had suffered, as all knew, the common lot of nature. And so,
the Apostle infers, the words should be understood more imme
diately of Christ, in whose history alone they could properly be
said to be accomplished. Warburton, however, inverts this
order. Of the deliverance from hell, the freedom from corrup
tion, and the return to the paths of life, he says, " Though it
literally signifies security from the curse of the law upon trans
gressors, viz., immature death, yet it may very reasonably be
understood in a spiritual sense of the resurrection of Christ
from the dead ; in which case the words or terms translated
soul and hell are left in the meaning they bear in the Hebrew
tongue of body and grave /" He does not, of course, deny that
Peter claimed the passage as a prophecy of Christ s resurrec
tion ; but maintains that he does so, " no otherwise than by
giving it a secondary or spiritual sense." In such a style of
interpretation, one cannot but feel as if the terms primary and
170 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
secondary, literal and spiritual, had somehow come to exchange
places ; since the plain import of the words seems to carry us
directly to Christ, while it requires a certain strain to be put
upon them before they can properly apply to the case of
David.
Such, indeed, is what usually happens with the instances
selected by the advocates of this theory. The double sense they
contend for does not strictly hold in both of the relations ; and
very commonly what is contended for as the immediate and
primary, is the sense that is least accordant with the grammati
cal import of the words. We, therefore, reject it as a satisfac
tory explanation of a numerous class of prophecies, and on three
several grounds : First, because it so ravels and complicates the
meaning of the prophecies to which it is applied, as to involve
us in painful doubt and uncertainty regarding their proper
application. Secondly, should this be avoided, it can only arise
from the prophecies being of so general and comprehensive a
nature, as to be incapable of a very close and specific fulfilment.
And, finally, when applied to particular examples, the theory
practically gives way, as the terms employed in all the more im
portant predictions are too definite and precise to admit of more
than one proper fulfilment.
2. We turn now, in the last place, to the mode of propheti
cal interpretation which has commonly prevailed with those who
have ranged themselves in opposition to the theory of the double
sense. The chief defect in this class of interpreters consists in
their having failed to take sufficiently into account the connec
tion subsisting between the Old and the New Testament dis
pensations. They have hence generally given only a partial view
of the relations involved in particular prophecies, and not unfre-
quently have confined the application of these to circumstances
which only supplied the occasion of their delivery, and the form
of their delineations. The single sense contended for has thus
too often differed materially from the real sense. And many
portions of the Psalms and other prophetical Scriptures, which
in New Testament Scripture itself are applied to Gospel times,
have been stript of their evangelical import, on the ground that
the writer of the prophecy must have had in view some events
immediately affecting himself or his country, and that no further
RATIONALISTIC SINGLE SENSE. 171
use, except by way of accommodation, can legitimately be made
of the words he uttered.
Such, for example, has been the way that the remarkable
prophecy in Isaiah, respecting the son to be born of a virgin
(ch. vii. 14-16), has often been treated. The words of the pro
phecy are, " Behold the virgin conceiveth and beareth a son,
and she shall call his name Immanuel. Butter [rather milk]
and honey shall he eat, when he shall know (or that he may
know) to refuse what is evil and choose what is good ; for before
this child shall know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good,
the land shall become desolate, by whose two kings thou art dis
tressed." We have what may justly be called two inspired com
mentaries on this prediction, one in the Old, and another in the
New Testament. The prophet Micah, the contemporary of
Isaiah, evidently referring to the words before us, says, im
mediately after announcing the birth of the future Ruler of
Israel at Bethlehem, "Therefore will he give them up, until
the time that she who shall bear hath brought forth" (v. 3).
The peculiar expression, " she who shall bear," points to the
already designated mother of the Divine King, but only in this
prediction of Isaiah designated as the virgin ; so that, in the
language of Rosenmiiller, " both predictions throw light on each
other. Micah discloses the Divine origin of the Person pre
dicted ; Isaiah the wonderful manner of His birth." The other
allusion in inspired Scripture is by St Matthew, when, relating
the miraculous circumstances of Christ s birth, he adds, " Now
all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of
the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with
child," etc. And the prophecy, as Bishop Lowth has well
stated, " is introduced in so solemn a manner ; the sign is so
marked, as a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz
had rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the
whole compass of nature; the terms of the prophecy are so
peculiar, and the name of the child so expressive, containing in
them much more than the circumstances of the birth of a com
mon child required, or even admitted ; that we may easily sup
pose, that in minds prepared by the general expectation of a
great deliverer to spring from the house of David, they raised
hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested ; especially
172 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, delivered
immediately afterward, this child, called Immanuel, is treated as
the Lord and Prince of Judah. (Ch. viii. 810.) Who could
this be, other than the heir of the throne of David? under
which character a great and even a Divine person had been
promised."
These things leave little doubt as to the real bearing of the
prophecy. But as originally delivered, it is connected with two
peculiarities : the one that it is given as a sign to the house of
David, then represented by the wicked Ahaz, and trembling for
fear on account of the combined hostility of Syria and Israel ;
the other that it is succeeded by a word to the prophet con
cerning a son to be born to him by the prophetess, which should
not be able to cry, My Father, before the king of Assyria had
spoiled both the kingdoms of Syria and Israel. (Ch. viii. 1-4.)
And it has been thought, from these peculiarities, that it was
really this son of the prophet that was meant by the Immanuel,
as this alone could be a proper sign to Ahaz of the deliverance
that was to be so speedily granted to him from the object of his
dread. So Grotius, who holds that St Matthew only applied it
mystically to Christ, and a whole host of interpreters since, of
whom many can think of no better defence for the Evangelist
than that, as the words of the prophet were more elevated
and full than the immediate occasion demanded, they might be
said to be fulfilled in what more nearly accorded with them.
Apologies of this kind, it is easy to be seen, will not avail much
in the present day to save the honesty or discernment, to say
nothing of the inspired authority, of the Evangelist. But there
is really no need for them. It is quite arbitrary to suppose that
the child to be born of the prophetess (an ideal child, we should
imagine, conceived and born in prophetic vision since other
wise it would seem to have been born in fornication) is to be
identified with the virgin s son; the rather so, as an entirely
different name is given to it (Maher-shalal-hash-baz), an ideal
but descriptive name, and pointing simply to the spoliation that
was to be effected on the hostile kingdoms. Immanuel has
another, a higher import, and bespeaks what the Lord should
be to the covenant-people, not what He should do to the ene
mies. Nor is the other circumstance, of the word being uttered
RATIONALISTIC SINGLE SENSE. 173
as a sign to the house of David, any reason for turning it from
its natural sense and application. A sign in the ordinary sense
had been refused, under a pretence of pious trust in God, but
really from a feeling of distrust and improper reliance on an
arm of flesh. And now the Lord gives a sign in a peculiar
sense, much as Jesus met the craving of an adulterous gene
ration for a sign from heaven, by giving the sign of the prophet
Jonas the reverse of what they either wished or expected, a
sign, not from heaven, but from the lower parts of the earth.
So here, by announcing the birth of Immanuel, the prophet
gave a sign suited to the time of backsliding and apostacy in
which he lived. For it told the house of David, that, wearying
God as they were doing by their sins, He would vindicate His
cause in a way they little expected or desired ; that He would
secure the establishment of His covenant with the house of
David, by raising up a child in whom the Divine should actually
commingle with the human ; but that this child should be the
offspring of some unknown virgin, not of Ahaz or of any ordi
nary occupant of the throne ; and that, meanwhile, everything
should go to desolation and ruin first, indeed, in the allied
kingdoms of Israel and Syria (ver. 16), but afterwards also in
the kingdom of Judah (vers. 1725) ; so that the destined pos
sessor of the throne, when he came, should find all in a pro
strate condition, and grow up like one in an impoverished and
stricken country, fed with the simple fare of a cottage shepherd
(comp. ver. 16 with 22). Thus understood, the whole is
entirely natural and consistent ; and the single sense of the
prophecy proves to be identical, as well with the native force
of the words, as with the interpretations of inspired men.
We have selected this as one of the most common and
plausible specimens of the false style of interpretation to which
we have referred. It is needless to adduce more, as the explana
tions given in the earlier part of the chapter have already met
many of them by anticipation ; and the supplementary treatise
in the Appendix will supply what further may be needed. If
but honestly and earnestly dealt with, the Scripture has no reason
to fear, in this or in other departments, the closest investigation ;
the more there is of rigid inquiry, displacing superficial con
siderations, the more will its inner truth and harmony appear.
CHAPTER SIXTH.
THE INTERPRETATION OF PARTICULAR TYPES SPECIFIC
PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS.
IT was one of the objections urged against the typological views
of our elder divines, that their system admitted of no fixed or
definite rules being laid down for guiding us to the knowledge
and interpretation of particular types. Everything was left to
the discretion or caprice of the individual who undertook to in
vestigate them. The few directions that were sometimes given
upon the subject were too vague and general to be of any mate
rial service. That the type must have borne, in its original
design and institution, a pre-ordained reference to the Gospel
antitype that there is often more in the type than in the anti
type, and more in the antitype than the type that there must
be a natural and appropriate application of the one to the other
that the wicked as such, and acts of sin as such, must be ex
cluded from the category of types that one thing is sometimes
the type of different and even contrary things, though in dif
ferent respects and that there is sometimes an interchange
between the type and the antitype of the names respectively be
longing to each : These rules of interpretation, which are the
whole that Glassius and other hermeneutical writers furnish for
our direction, could not go far, either to restrain the licence of
conjecture, or to mark out the particular course of thought and
inquiry that should be pursued. They can scarcely be said to
touch the main difficulties of the subject, and throw no light on
its more distinguishing peculiarities. Nor, indeed, could any
other result have been expected. The rules could not be precise
or definite, when the system on which they were founded was
altogether loose and indeterminate. And only with the laying
of a more solid and stable foundation could directions for the
practical treatment of the subject come to possess any measure
of satisfaction or explicitness.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 175
Even on the supposition that some progress has now been
made in laying such a foundation, we cannot hold out the pros
pect, that no room shall be left for dubiety, and that all may be
reduced to a kind of dogmatical precision and certainty. It
would be unreasonable to expect this, considering both the
peculiar character and the manifold variety of the field em
braced by the Typology of Scripture. That there may still be
particular cases in which it will be questionable whether any
thing properly typical belonged to them, and others in which a
diversity of view may be allowable in explaining what is typical,
seems to us by no means improbable. And in the specific rules
or principles of interpretation that follow, we do not aim at dis
pelling every possible doubt and ambiguity connected with the
subject, but only at fixing its more prominent and characteristic
outlines. We believe, that with ordinary care and discretion,
they will be sufficient to guard against material error.
I. The first principle we lay down has respect merely to the
amount of what is typical in Old Testament Scripture ; it is,
that nothing is to be regarded as typical of the good things under
the Gospel^ which was itself of a forbidden and sinful nature.
Something approximating to this has been mentioned among the
too general and obvious directions which philological writers
have been accustomed to give upon the subject. It is, indeed,
so much of that description, that though in itself a principle
most necessary to be observed and acted on, yet we should have
refrained from any express announcement or formal proof of it
here, were it not still frequently set at naught, alike in theologi
cal discussions and in popular discourses.
The ground of the principle, in the form here given to it, lies
in the connection which the type has with the antitype, and con
sequently with God. The antitype standing in the things which
belong to God s everlasting kingdom, is necessarily of God; and
so, by a like necessity, the type, which was intended to fore
shadow and prepare for it, must have been equally of Him.
Whether a symbol in religion or a fact in providence, it must
have borne upon it the Divine sanction and approval ; otherwise
there could have been no proper connection between the ultimate
reality and its preparatory exhibitions. So far as the institu-
176 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
tions of religion are concerned, this is readily admitted ; and no
one would think of contending for the idolatrous rites of worship
which were sometimes introduced into the services of the sanc
tuary, being ranked among the shadows of the better things to
come.
But there is not the same readiness to perceive the incon
gruity of admitting to the rank of types, actions which were as
far from being accordant with the mind of God, as the impurities
of an idolatrous worship. Such actions might, no doubt, differ
in one respect from the forbidden services of religion ; they
might in some way be overruled by God for the accomplishment
of His own purposes, and thereby be brought into a certain con
nection with Himself. This was never more strikingly done
than in respect to the things which befell Jesus the great
antitype which were carried into effect by the operation of the
fiercest malice and wickedness, and yet were the very things
which the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God had
appointed before to be done. It is one thing, however, for
human agents and their actions being controlled and directed
by God, so as, amid all their impetuosity and uproar, to be con
strained to work out His righteous purposes ; but another thing
for them to stand in such close relationship to Him, that they
become express and authoritative revelations of His will. This
last is the light in which they must be contemplated, if a typical
character is ascribed to them. For the time during which typi
cal things lasted, they stood as temporary representations under
God s own hand of what He was going permanently to establish
under the Gospel. And, therefore, as amid those higher trans
actions, where the antitype comes into play, we exclude what
ever was the offspring of human ignorance or sinfulness ; so in
the earlier and inferior transactions, which were typical of what
was to come, we must, in like manner, exclude the workings of
all earthly and sinful affections. The typical and the antitypi-
cal alike must bear on them the image and superscription of
God.
Violations of this obvious principle are much less frequently
met with now, than they were in the theological writings of
last century. Still, however, instances are occasionally forcing
themselves on one s notice. And in popular discourses, none
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 177
perhaps occurs more frequently than that connected with
Jacob s melancholy dissimulation and cunning policy for ob
taining the blessing. His receiving the blessing, we are some
times told, in the garments of Esau, which his mother arrayed
him with, " is to be viewed as a faint shadow of our receiving
the blessing from God in the garments of Jesus Christ, which
all the children of the promise wear. It was not the feigned
venison, but the borrowed garments, that procured the bless
ing. Even so, we are not blessed by God for our good works,
however pleasing to Him, but for the righteousness of our
Redeemer." What a confounding of things that differ ! The
garments of the " profane " Esau made to image the spotless
righteousness of Jesus ! And the fraudulent use of the one by
Jacob, viewed as representing the believer s simple and confid
ing trust in the other ! Between things so essentially different
there can manifestly be nothing but superficial resemblances,
which necessarily vanish the moment the real facts of the case
rise into view. It was not Jacob s imposing upon his father s
infirmities, either with false venison or with borrowed garments,
which in reality procured for him the blessing. The whole that
can be said of these is, that in the actual circumstances of the
case they had a certain influence, of an instrumental kind, in
leading Isaac to pronounce it. But what had been thus spoken
on false grounds and under mistaken apprehensions, might
surely have been recalled when the truth came to be known.
The prophet Nathan, at a later age, found no difficulty in
revoking the word he had too hastily spoken to David respect
ing the building of the temple, though it had been elicited by
something very different from falsehood by novel and un
expected display of real goodness. (2 Sam. vii. o.) And in
the case now under consideration, if there had been nothing
more in the matter than the mock venison and the hairy
garments of Esau, there can be little doubt that the blessing
that had been pronounced would have been instantly withdrawn,
and the curse which Jacob dreaded made to take its place.
In truth, Isaac erred in what he purposed to do, not less than
Jacob in beguiling him to do what he had not purposed. He
was going to utter in God s name a prophetic word, which, if it
had taken effect as he intended, would have contravened the
VOL. I. M
178 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
oracle originally given to Rebekah concerning the two children,
even prior to their birth that the elder should serve the
younger. And there were not wanting indications in the spirit
and behaviour of the sons, after they had sprung to manhood,
which might have led a mind of spiritual discernment to descry
in Jacob, rather than Esau, the heir of blessing. But living
as Isaac had done for the most part of his life in a kind of
luxurious ease, in his declining years especially yielding too
much to the fleshly indulgences assiduously ministered to by
the hand of Esau, the eye of his mind, like that of his body,
grew dim, and he lost the correct perception of the truth. But
when he saw how the providence of God had led him to bestow
the blessing, otherwise than he himself had designed, the truth
rushed at once upon his soul. " He trembled exceedingly "-
not simply, nor perhaps chiefly, because of the deceit that had
been practised upon his blindness, but because of the worse
spiritual blindness which had led him to err so grievously from
the revealed purpose of God. And hence, even after the dis
covery of Jacob s fraudulent behaviour, he declared with the
strongest emphasis, " Yea, and he shall be blessed."
Thus, when the real circumstances of the case are con
sidered, there appears no ground whatever for connecting the
improper conduct of Jacob with the mode of a sinner s justifi
cation. The resemblances that may be found between them
are quite superficial or arbitrary. And such always are the
resemblances which appear between the workings of evil in
man, and the 0od that is of God. The two belong to essen-
/ C? c"?
tially different spheres, and a real analogy or a divinely or
dained connection cannot possibly unite them together. The
principle, however, may be carried a step farther. As the
operations of sin cannot prefigure the actings of righteousness,
so the direct results and consequences of sin cannot justly be
regarded as typical representations of the exercises of grace and
holiness. When, therefore (to refer again to the history of
Jacob), the things that befell him in God s providence, on
account of his unbrotherly and deceitful conduct, are repre
sented as typical foreshado wings of Christ s work of humilia
tion Jacob s withdrawal from his father s house, prefiguring
Christ s leaving the region of glory and appearing as a stranger
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 179
on the earth Jacob s sleeping on the naked ground with
nothing but a stone for his pillow, Christ s descent into the
lowest depths of poverty and shame, that he might afterwards
be exalted to the head-stone of the corner, and so forth; 1 in
such representations there is manifestly a stringing together of
events which have no fundamental agreement, and possess no
mutual relations. In the one case Jacob was merely suffering
the just reward of his misdeeds; while the Redeemer in the
other and alleged parallel transactions, was voluntarily giving
the highest display of the holy love that animated His bosom
for the good of men. And whatever there might be in certain
points of an outward and formal resemblance between them, it
is in the nature of things impossible that there could be a real
harmony and an ordained connection.
It is to be noted, however, that we apply the principle now
under consideration to the extent merely of denying a typical
connection between what in former times appeared of evil on
the part of man, and the good subsequently introduced by God.
And we do so on the ground that such things only as He sanc
tioned and approved in the past, could foreshadow the higher
and better things which were to be sanctioned and approved by
Him in the future. But as all the manifestations of truth have
their corresponding and antagonistic manifestations of error, it
is perfectly warrantable and scriptural to regard the form of
evil which from time to time confronted the type, as itself the
type of something similar, which should afterwards arise as a
counter form of evil to the antitype. Antichrist, therefore, may
be said to have had his types as well as Christ. Hagar was the
type of a carnal church, that should be in bondage to the
elements of the world, and of a spirit at enmity with God, as
Sarah was of a spiritual church, that should possess the freedom
and enjoy the privileges of the children of God. Egypt, Edom,
Assyria, Babylon without, and Saul, Ahithophel, Absalom, and
others within the circle of the Old Covenant, have each their
counterpart in the things belonging to the history of Christ and
His Church of the New Testament. In strictness of speech, it
is the other class of relations alone which carry with them the
impress and ordination of God ; but as God s acts and operations
1 Kanne s Christus in Alleii Testament, Th. ii., p. 133, etc.
180 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
in His Church never fail to call into existence the world s enmity
and opposition, so the forms which this assumed in earlier times
might well be regarded as prophetic of those which were after
wards to appear. And if so with the evil itself, still more with
the visitations of severity sent to chastise the evil; for these
come directly from God. The judgments, therefore, He inflicted
on iniquity in the past, typified like judgments on all similar
aspects of iniquity in the future. And the period when the good
shall reach its full development and final triumph, shall also be
that in which the work of judgment shall pour its floods of per
petual desolation upon the evil.
II. We pass on to another, which must still also be a some
what negative principle of interpretation, viz., that in determin
ing the existence and import of particular types, we must be
guided, not so much by any knowledge possessed, or supposed to
be possessed, by the ancient worshippers concerning their prospec
tive fulfilment, as from the light furnished by their realization in
the great facts and revelations of the Gospel.
Whether we look to the symbolical or to the historical types,
neither their own nature, nor God s design in appointing them,
could warrant us in drawing very definite and conclusive infer
ences regarding the insight possessed by the Old Testament
worshippers into their prospective or Gospel import. The one
formed part of an existing religion, and the other of a course of
providential dealings ; and in that more immediate respect there
were certain truths they embodied, and certain lessons they
taught, for those who had directly to do with them. Their fit
ness for unfolding such truths and lessons formed, as we have
O
seen, the groundwork of their typical connection with Gospel
times. But though they must have been understood in that
primary aspect by all sincere and intelligent worshippers, these
did not necessarily perceive their further reference to the things
of Christ s kingdom. Nor does the reality or the precise import
of their typical character depend upon the correctness or the
extent of the knowledge held respecting it by the members of
the Old Covenant. For the connection implied in their pos
sessing such a character between the preparatory and the final
dispensations was not of the Church s forming, but of God s ;
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 181
and a very considerable part of the design which He intended
these to serve with ancient believers, may have been accom
plished, though they knew little, and perhaps in some cases
nothing, of the germs that lay concealed in them of better things
to come. These germs iue?e concealed in all typical events and
institutions, considered simply by themselves since the events
and institutions had a significance and use for the time then
present, apart from what might be evolved in the future pur
poses of God. Now, we are expressly told, even in regard to
direct prophecies of Gospel times, that not only the persons to
whom they were originally delivered, but the very individuals
through whom they were communicated, did not always or
necessarily understand their precise meaning. Sometimes, at
least, they had to assume the position of inquirers, in order to
get the more exact and definite information which they desired
(Dan. xii. 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 12) ; and it would seem, from the case
of Daniel, that even then they did not always obtain it. The
prophets were not properly the authors of their own predictions,
but spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Their
knowledge, therefore, of the real meaning of the prophecies
they uttered, was an entirely separate thing from the prophecies
themselves ; and if we knew what it was, it would still by no
means conclusively fix their full import. Such being the case
in regard even to the persons who uttered the spoken and direct
prophecies of the Old Testament, how preposterous would it
be to make the insight obtained by believers generally into
the indirect and veiled prophecies (as the types may be called),
the ground and standard of the Gospel truth they embodied !
In each case alike, it is the mind of God, not the discernment
or faith of the ancient believer, that we have properly to do
with.
Obvious as this may appear to some, it has been very com
monly overlooked ; and typical explanations have in consequence
too often taken the reverse direction of what they should have
done. Writers in this department are constantly telling us, how
in former times the eye of faith looked through the present to
the future, and assigning that as the reason why our present
should be contemplated in the remote past. Thus, in a once
popular work, Adam is represented as having "believed the
182 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
promise concerning Christ, in whose commemoration he offered
continual sacrifice ; and in the assurance thereof he named his
wife Eee, that is to say, life, and he called his son Seth, settled,
or persuaded in Christ." 1 Another exalts in like manner the
faith of Zipporah, and regards her, when she said to Moses,
" A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision," as
announcing " through one of her children, the Jehovah as the
future Redeemer and bridegroom." 2 Another presents Moses
to our view as wondering at the ^reat sio;ht of the burning bush.
O O O O 7
" because the great mystery of the incarnation and sufferings of
Christ was there represented ; a great sight he might well call
it, when there was represented God manifest in the flesh, suffer
ing a dreadful death, and rising from the dead." 3 And Owen,
speaking of the Old Testament believers generally, says, " Their
faith in God was not confined to the outward things they en
joyed, but on Christ in them, and represented by them. They
believed that they were only resemblances of Him and His
mediation, which, when they lost the faith of, they lost all
acceptance with God in their worship." 4 Writers of a different
class, and of later date, have followed substantially in the same
track. Warburton maintains with characteristic dogmatism,
that the transaction with Abraham, in offering up Isaac, was a
typical action, in which the patriarch had scenically represented
to his view the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ;
and that on any other supposition there can be no right under
standing of the matter. 5 Dean Graves expresses his concurrence
in this interpretation, as does also Mr Faber, who says that
" Abraham must have clearly understood the nature of that
awful transaction by which the day of Christ was to be charac-
1 Fisher s Marrow of Modern Divinity, P. 1, c. 2.
2 Kanne s Christus in Alt. Test., I., p. 100.
8 History of Redemption, by Jonathan Edwards. Period I., p. 4.
4 Owen on Heb. viii. 5. In another part of his writings, however, we
find him saying, "Although those (Old Testament) things are now full of
light and instruction to us, evidently expressing the principal works of
Christ s mediation, yet they were not so unto them. The meanest believer
may now find out more of the work of Christ in the types of the Old Testa
ment, than any prophet or wise man could have done of old." On the
Person of Christ, ch. 8.
5 Legation of Moses, B. vi., sec. 5.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 183
terizcd, and could not have been ignorant of the benefits about
to be procured by it." 1 And, to mention no more, Chevallier
intimates a doubt concerning the typical character of the brazen
serpent, because " it is not plainly declared, either in the Old or
the New Testament, to have been ordained by God purposely to
represent to the Israelites the future mysteries of the Gospel
revelation." 2
These quotations sufficiently show how current the opinion
has been, and still is, that the persons who lived amid the types
must have perfectly understood their typical character, and that
by their knowledge in this respect we are bound in great mea
sure, if not entirely, to regulate ours. It is, however, a very
difficult question, and one (as we have already had occasion to
state) on which we should seldom venture to give more than an
approximate deliverance, how far the realities typified even by
the more important symbols and transactions of ancient times
were distinctly perceived by any individual who lived prior to
their actual appearance. The reason for this uncertainty and
probable ignorance is the same with that which has been so
clearly exhibited by Bishop Horsley, and applied in refutation
of an infidel objection, in the closely related field of prophecy.
It was necessary, for the very ends of prophecy, that a certain
disguise should remain over the events it foretold, till they be
came facts in providence ; and therefore, " whatever private
information the prophet might enjoy, the Spirit of God would
never permit him to disclose the ultimate intent and particular
meaning of the prophecy." 3 Types being a species of prophecy,
and from their nature less precise and determinate in meaning,
they must certainly have been placed under the veil of a not
inferior disguise. Whatever insight more advanced believers
might have had into their ultimate design, it could neither be
distinctly announced, nor, if announced, serve as a sufficient
directory for us ; it could only furnish, according to the measure
of light it contained, comfort and encouragement to themselves.
And whether that measure might be great or small, vague and
general, or minute and particular, we should not be bound, even
if we knew it, to abide by its rule ; for here, as in prophecy, the
1 Treatise on the Three Dispensations, vol. ii., p. 57.
2 Historical Types, p. 221. 3 Ilorsley s Works, vol. i., p. 271-273.
184 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
judgment of the early Church "must still bow down to time as
a more informed expositor."
That the sincere worshippers of God in former ages, espe
cially such as possessed the higher degrees of spiritual thought
and discernment, were acquainted not only with God s general
purpose of redemption, but also with some of its more prominent
features and results, we have no reason to doubt. It is impos
sible to read those portions of Old Testament Scripture which
disclose the feelings and expectations of gifted rninds, without
being convinced that considerable light was sometimes obtained
respecting the work of salvation. We shall find an opportunity
for inquiring more particularly concerning this, when we come
to treat, in a subsequent part of our investigations, respecting
the connection between the moral legislation and the ceremonial
institutions of Moses. But that the views even of the better
part of the Old Testament worshippers must have been com
paratively dim, and that their acceptance as worshippers did not
depend upon the clearness of their discernment in regard to the
person and kingdom of Christ, is evident from what was stated
in our second chapter as to the relatively imperfect nature of the
earlier dispensations, and the childhood-state of those who lived
under them. It was the period when, as is expressly stated in
the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. ix. 8), "the way into the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest ; " or, in other words,
when the method of salvation was not fully disclosed to the view
of God s people. And though we may not be warranted to con
sider what is written of the closing age of Old Testament times
as a fair specimen of their general character, yet we cannot shut
our eyes to the fact, that not only did much prevailing ignorance
then exist concerning the better things of the New Covenant,
but that instances occur even of genuine believers, who still be
trayed an utter misapprehension of their proper nature. Thus
Nathaniel was pronounced " an Israelite indeed, in whom there
was no guile," while he obviously laboured under inadequate
views of Christ s person and work. And no sooner had Peter
received the peculiar benediction bestowed, on account of his
explicit confession of the truth, than he gave evidence of his
ignorance of the design, and his repugnance to the thought, of
Christ s sufferings and death. Such things occurring on the
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 185
very boundary-line between the Old and the New, and after the
clearer light of the New had begun to be partially introduced,
render it plain, that they may also have existed, and in all pro
bability did not unfrequently prevail, even among the believing
portion of Israel in remoter times.
But such being the case, it would manifestly be travelling in
the wrong direction to make the knowledge, which was possessed
by ancient believers regarding the prospective import of parti
cular types, the measure of our own. The providential arrange
ments and religious institutions which constitute the types, had
an end to serve, independently of their typical design, in mini
stering to the present wants of believers, and nourishing in their
souls the life of faith. Their more remote and typical import
was for us, even more than for those who had immediately to
do with them. It does not rest upon the more or less imperfect
information such persons might have had concerning it ; but
chiefly on the light furnished by the records of the New Testa
ment, and thence reflected on those of the Old. " It is Christ
who holds the key of the types, not Moses ; " and instead of
making everything depend upon the still doubtful inquiry, What
did pious men of old descry of Gospel realities through the
shadowy forms of typical institutions ? we must repair to these
realities themselves, and by the light radiating from them over
the past, as well as the present and future things of God, read
the evidence of that " testimony of Jesus," which lies written
in the typical not less than in the prophetical portions of ancient
Scripture.
III. But if in this respect we have comparatively little to do
with the views of those who lived under former dispensations,
there is another respect in which we have much to do with
them. And our next principle of interpretation is, that we
must always, in the first instance, be careful to make ourselves
acquainted ivith the truths or ideas exhibited in the types, con
sidered merely as providential transactions or religious institutions.
In other words, we are to find in what they were in their im
mediate relation to the patriarchal or Jewish worshipper, the
foundation and substance of what they typically present to the
Christian Church.
186 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
There is no contrariety between this principle and the one
last announced. We had stated, that in endeavouring to ascer
tain the reality and the nature of a typical connection between
Old and New Testament affairs, we are not to reason downward
from what might be known of this in earlier times, but rather
upward from what may now be known of it, in consequence of
the clearer light and higher revelations of the Gospel. What
we farther state now is, that the religious truths and ideas which
were embodied in the typical events and institutions of former
times, must be regarded as forming the ground and limit of
their prospective reference to the affairs of Christ s kingdom.
That they had a moral, political, or religious end to serve for
the time then present, so far from interfering with their desti
nation to typify the spiritual things of the Gospel, forms the
very ground and substance of their typical bearing. Hence
their character in the one respect, the more immediate, may
justly be regarded as the essential key to their character in
respect to what was more remote.
This principle of interpretation grows so necessarily out of
the views advanced in the earlier and more fundamental parts
of our inquiry, that it must here be held as in a manner proved.
Its validity must stand or fall with that of the general princi
ples we have sought to establish, as to the relation between type
and antitype. That relation, it has been our object to show,
rests on something deeper than merely outward resemblances.
It rests rather on the essential unity of the things so related, on
their being alike embodiments of the same principles of Divine
truth ; but embodiments in the case of the type, on a lower and
earthly scale, and as a designed preparation for the higher de
velopment afterwards to be made in the Gospel. That, there
fore, which goes first in the nature of things, must also go first
in any successful effort to trace the connection between them.
And the question, What elements of Divine truth are symbol
ized in the type I must take precedence of the other question,
How did the type foreshadow the greater realities of the anti
type ? For it is in the solution we obtain for the one, that a
foundation is to be laid for the solution of the other.
It is only by keeping stedfastly to this rule, that we shall be
able, in the practical department of our inquiry, to direct our
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 187
thoughts to substantial, as opposed to merely superficial and
fanciful, resemblances. The palpable want of discrimination in
this respect, between what is essential and what is only acci
dental, formed one of the leading defects in our elder writers.
And it naturally sprang from too exclusive a regard to the anti
type, as if the things belonging to it being fully ascertained, we
were at liberty to connect it with everything formally resem
bling it in ancient times, whether really akin in nature to it or
not. Thus, when Kanne, in a passage formerly referred to,
represents the stone which Jacob took for his pillow at Bethel,
as a type of Christ in His character as the foundation-stone of
His Church, there is, no doubt, a kind of outward similarity, so
that the same language may, in a sense, be applied to both ; but
there is no common principle uniting them together. The use
which Jacob made of the stone was quite different from that in
respect to which Christ is exhibited as the stone laid in Zion
being laid not for the repose or slumber, but for the stability
and support, of a ransomed people. For this the strength and
durability of a rock were absolutely indispensable ; but they con
tributed nothing to the fitness of what Jacob s necessities drove
him to employ as a temporary pillow. It was his misfortune, not
his privilege, to be obliged to resort to a stone for such a purpose.
We had occasion formerly to describe in what manner the
lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness might be
regarded as typical of the lifting up of a crucified Redeemer ;
by showing how the inferior objects and relations of the one
had their correspondence in the higher objects and relations of
the other! 1 But suppose we should proceed in the opposite
direction, and should take these higher objects and relations of
the antitype as the rule and measure of what we are to expect
in the type ; then, having a far wider and more complicated
subject for our starting-point, we should naturally set about
discovering many slight and superficial analogies in the type, to
bring it into a fuller correspondence with the antitype. This is
what many have actually done who have treated of the subject.
Hence we find them expatiating upon the metal of which the
serpent was formed, and which, from being inferior to some
others, they regard as foreshadowing Christ s outward meanness,
i Chap. III., p. 81.
188 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
while in its solidity they discern His Divine strength, and in its
dim lustre the veil of His human nature ! * What did it avail
to the Israelite, or for any purpose the serpent had to serve, of
what particular stuff it was made? A dead and senseless thing
in itself, it must have been all one for those who were called
to look to it, whether the material was brass or silver, wood or
stone. And yet, as if it were not enough to make account of
these trifling accidents, others were sometimes invented, for
which there is no foundation in the inspired narrative, to obtain
for the greater breadth of the one subject a corresponding
breadth in the other. Thus Guild represents the serpent as not
having been forged by man s hand or hammer, but by a mould,
and in the fire, to image the Divine conception of Christ s
human nature ; and Justin Martyr, with still greater licence,
supposes the serpent to have been made in the form of a cross,
the more exactly to represent a suffering Eedeemer. Suppose
it had been modelled after this form, would it have been ren
dered thereby a more effective instrument for healing the
diseased? Or would one essential idea have been added to
what either an Israelite or a Christian were otherwise at liberty
to associate with it ? All such puerile straining of the subject
arose from an inverted order being taken in tracing the con
nection between the spiritual reality and the ancient shadow.
It would no longer be thought of, if the principle of interpre
tation here advanced were strictly adhered to ; that is, if the
typical matter of an event or institution were viewed simply as
standing in the truths or principles which it brought distinctly
into view ; and if these were regarded as actually comprising all
that in each particular case could legitimately be applied to the
antitypical affairs of Christ s kingdom.
The judicious application of this principle will serve also to
rid us of another class of extravagances, which are of frequent
occurrence in writers of the Cocceian school, and which mainly
consist, like those already noticed, of external resemblances,
deduced with little or no regard to any real principle of agree
ment. We refer to the customary mode of handling typical
persons or characters, with no other purpose apparently than
that of exhibiting the greatest possible number of coincidences
1 Guild s Moses Unveiled, and Watson s Holy Eucharist.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS.
189
between these and Christ. As many as forty of such have been
reckoned between Moses and Christ, and even more between
Joseph and Christ. Of course, a great proportion of such re
semblances are of a quite superficial and trifling nature, and
are of no moment, whether they happen to be perceived or not.
For any light they throw on the purposes of Heaven, or any
advantage they yield to our faith, we gain nothing by admitting
them, and we lose as little by rejecting them. They would
never have been sought for had the real nature of the connec
tion between type and antitype been understood, and the proper
mode of exhibiting it been adopted ; nor would typical persons
or individuals, sustaining a typical character through the whole
course and tenor of their lives, have been supposed to exist. It
was to familiarize the Church with great truths and principles,
not to occupy her thoughts with petty agreements and fanciful
analogies, that she was kept so long conversant with preparatory
dispensations. And as that end might have been in part served
by a single transaction, or a special appointment in a lifetime ;
so, whenever it was served, it must have been by virtue of its
exhibiting important aspects of Divine truth such as were to
reappear in the person and work of Christ. It is not, in short,
individuals throughout the entire compass of their history, but
individuals in certain divinely appointed offices or relations,
in which we are to seek for what is typical in this province of
sacred history. 1
1 Scarcely any of the late works on the types, published in this country,
are free from the extravagances we have referred to respecting personal
types. They assume, however, the most extreme form in the German
work of Kanne, published in 1818. There the mere similarity of names
is held as a conclusive proof of a typical connection ; so that Miriam, sister
of Moses, was a type of Mary, for the Jews call the former Maria, as well
as the latter. The work is full of such puerilities. It is the same tendency,
however, to rest in merely superficial resemblances which led Schbttgen,
for example, in his Horse Heb. on 1 Cor. x. 2, and leads some still, to hold
that the Israelites must have been " bedewed and refreshed " by the cloud.
It is true the sacred narrative is silent about that, nor is any support to be
found for it in the Jewish writings ; but it seemed to the learned author
necessary to make out a typical relation to baptism, and so he regards it
as in a manner self-evident. On the same ground, of course, Noah and his
family must have been all sprinkled or dipped in the flood, since this too
was the type of baptism !
190 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
IV. Another conclusion flowing not less clearly than the
foregoing from the views already established, and which we
propose as our next leading principle of interpretation, is, that
while the symbol or institution constituting the type has pro
perly bat one radical meaning, yet the fundamental idea or prin
ciple exhibited in it may often be capable of more than one
application to the realities of the Gospel; that is, it may bear
respect to, and be developed in, more than one department of
the affairs of Christ s kingdom. But in illustrating this pro
position, we must take in succession the several parts of which
it consists.
1. The first part asserts each type to be capable of but one
radical meaning. It has a definite way of expressing some
fundamental idea that, and no more. Were it otherwise, we
should find any consistent or satisfactory interpretation of
typical things quite impracticable, and should often lose our
selves in a sea of uncertainty. An example or two may serve
to show how far this has actually been the case in the past.
Glassius makes the deluge to typify both the preservation of
the faithful through baptism, and the destruction of the wicked
in the day of judgment ; and the rule under which he adduces
this example is, that " a type may be a figure of two, and even
contrary things, though in different respects." * In like manner,
Taylor, taking the full liberty of such a canon, when interpret
ing the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea as a type
of baptism, sees in that event, first, " the offering of Jesus
Christ to their faith, through the Eed Sea, of whose death and
passion they should find a sure and safe way to the celestial
Canaan;" and then this other truth, that "by His merit and
mediation He would carry them through all difficulties and
dangers, as deep as the bottom of the sea, unto eternal rest." 2
In this last specimen the Red Sea is viewed as representing at
the same time, and in relation to the same persons, both the
atoning blood of Christ and the outward trials of life. The
other example is not so palpably incorrect, nor does it in fact go
to the entire length, which the rule it is designed to illustrate
1 Philolog. Sac. Lib. II., p. 1, Trac. II., sec. 4, 8. He quotes from
Cornelius a Lapide, but adopts the rule as good.
2 Moses and Aaron, p. 237.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 191
properly warrants ; for the action of the waters in the deluge is
considered by it with reference to different persons, as well as
in different respects. It is at fault, however, in making one
event typical of two diverse and unconnected results. Many
other examples might be produced of similar false interpreta
tions from what has been written of the tabernacle and its
services, equally indicative, on the part of the writers, of a
capricious fancy, and in themselves utterly destitute of any
solid foundation.
Our previous investigations, we trust, have removed this pro
lific source of ambiguity and confusion ; for, if we have not
entirely failed of our object, we have shown that the typical
transactions and symbols of the Old Testament are by no means
so vague and arbitrary as to be capable of bearing senses alto
gether variable and inconsistent. Viewed as a. species of lan
guage, which they really were a speaking by action instead of
words they could only reach the end they had to serve by giving
forth a distinct and intelligible meaning. Such language can
o o & &
no more do this than oral or written discourse, if constructed so
as to be susceptible of the most diverse and even opposite senses.
By the necessities of the case, therefore, we are constrained to
hold, that whatever instruction God might design to communi
cate to the Church, either in earlier or in later times, by means
of the religious institutions and providential arrangements of
past times, it must have been such as admits of being derived
from them by a fixed and reasonable mode of interpretation.
To suppose that their virtue consisted in some capacity to express
meanings quite variable and inconsistent with each other, would
be to assimilate them to the uncertain oracles of heathenism.
2. This is to be understood in the strictest sense of such
typical acts and symbols, as, from their nature, were expressive
of a simple, uncompounded idea. In that case, it would be an
incongruity to make what was one in the type, present, like a re
volving light, a changeful and varying aspect toward the antitype.
But the type itself might possibly be of a complex nature ; that
is, it might embody a process which branched out into two or
more lines of operation, and so combined two or more related
ideas together. In such a case, there will require to be a corre
sponding variety in the application that is made from the type to
192 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
the antitype. The twofold, or perhaps still more complicated,
idea contained in the one must have its counterpart in the other,
as much as if each idea had received a separate representation ;
though due regard must be paid to the connection which they
appear to have one with another, as component elements of the
same type. For example, the event of the deluge, recently ad
verted to, which at once bore on its bosom an elect seed, in safe
preservation for the peopling of a new world, and overwhelmed
in perdition the race of ungodly men who had corrupted the old,
unquestionably involves a complex idea. It embodies in one
great act a double process a process, however, which was ac
complished simultaneously in both its parts; since the doing of the
one carried along with it the execution of the other. In think
ing, therefore, 6f the New Testament antitype, we must have
respect not only to the two ideas themselves severally represented,
but also to their relation to each other ; we must look for some
spiritual process, which in like manner combines a work of pre
servation with a work of destruction. In the different fates of
the righteous and the wicked, the one as appointed to salvation,
and the other to perdition, we have certainly a twofold process
and result; but have we the two in a similar combination? We
certainly have them so combined in the personal history and
work of Christ, as His triumph and exaltation inevitably in
volved the bruising of Satan ; and the same shall also be found
in the final judgment, when, by putting down for ever all adverse
authority and rule, Christ shall raise His Church to the dominion
and the glory. If the typical connection between the deluge
and God s grander works of preservation and destruction, is put
in either of these lights, the objection we lately offered to the
interpretation of Glassius will be obviated, and the requirements
of a Scriptural exegesis satisfied. A like combination of two
ideas is found in the application made of the deluge by the
Apostle Peter to the ordinance of baptism, as will be shown in
due time. And there are, besides, many things connected with
the tabernacle and its services for example, the use made in
them of symbolical numbers, the different kinds of sacrifice, the
ritual of cleansing which are usually so employed as to convey
a complex meaning, and a meaning that of necessity assumes
different shades, according to the different modifications em-
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 193
ployed in the use of the symbolical materials. Such differences,
however, can only be of a minor kind ; they can never touch the
fundamental character of the typical phenomena, so as to render
them expressive in one relation of something totally unlike to
what they denoted in another. A symbolical act or institution
can as little be made to change its meaning arbitrarily, as a term
in language. Its precise import must always be determined first
by an intelligent consideration of its inherent nature, and then
by the connection in which it stands.
3. It is one thing, however, to maintain that a type, either as
a whole or in its component parts, can express only one meaning;
and another, to allow more than one application of it to the affairs
of Christ s kingdom. Not only is there an organic connection
between the Old and the New dispensations, giving rise to the
relation of type and antitype, but also an organic connection
between one part and another of the Gospel dispensation ; in
consequence of which the ideas and principles exhibited in the
types may find their realization in more than one department of
the Gospel system. The types, as well as the prophecies, hence
often admit of " a springing and germinant accomplishment."
They do so especially in those things which concern the eco
nomical relation subsisting between Christ and His people ; by
reason of which He is at once the root out of which they grow,
and the pattern after which their condition and destiny are to be
formed. If, on this account, it be necessary that in all things He
should have the pre-eminence, it is not less necessary that they
should bear His image, and share in His heritage of blessing.
So closely are they identified with Him. in their present experi
ence and their future prospects, that they are now spoken of as
having " fellowship with him in His sufferings," being " planted
with Him in the likeness of His death," and again " planted with
Him in the likeness of His resurrection," " sitting with Him in
heavenly places," having "their life hid with Him in God," and
being at last raised to "inherit His kingdom, and sit with Him
upon His throne." In short, the Church as a whole is conformed
to His likeness ; while, again, in each one of her members is
reproduced an image of the whole. Therefore the principles
and ideas which, by means of typical ordinances and transactions,
were perpetually exhibited before the eye of the Old Testament
VOL. I. N
194 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Church, while they must find their grand development in Christ
Himself, must also have further developments in the history of
His Church and people. They have respect to our relations and
experiences, our state and prospects, in so far as these essentially
coincide with Christ s ; for, so far, the one is but a partial re
newal or a prolonged existence of the other.
There are things of a typical nature, it is proper to add,
which in a more direct and special manner bear respect to the
Church and people of Christ. The rite of circumcision, for ex
ample, the passage through the Red Sea, the judgments in the
wilderness, the eating of manna, and many similar things, must
obviously have their antitypes in the heirs of salvation rather
than in Him, who, in this respect, stood alone ; He was per
sonally free from sin, and did not Himself need the blessings He
provided for others. So that, when the Apostle writes of the
ordinances of the law, that they were " shadows of good things
to come, but the body is of Christ" (Col. ii. 17), he is not to be
understood as meaning that Christ personally and alone is the
object they prospectively contemplated, but Christ together with
His body the Church the events and interests of the Gospel
dispensation. In this collective sense Christ is mentioned also
in 1 Cor. xii. 12, and Gal. iii. 16. Nor is it by any means an
arbitrary sense ; for it is grounded in the same vital truth, on
which we have based the admissibility of a twofold application
or bearing of typical things, viz., the organic union subsisting
between Christ and His redeemed people " He in them, and
they in Him."
V. Another principle of interpretation arising out of the
preceding investigations, and necessary to be borne in mind for
the right understanding of typical symbols and transactions, is,
that due regard must be had to the essential difference between the
nature of type and antitype. For, as the typical is Divine truth
on a lower stage, exhibited by means of outward relations and
terrestrial interests, so, when making the transition from this to
the antitypical, we must expect the truth to appear on a loftier
stage, and, if we may so speak, with a more heavenly aspect.
What in the one bore immediate respect to the bodily life, must
in the other be found to bear immediate respect to the spiritual
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 195
life. While in the one it is seen and temporal objects that
ostensibly present themselves, their proper counterpart in the
other are the unseen and eternal : there, the outward, the pre
sent, the worldly ; here, the inward, the future, the heavenly.
A change and advance of the kind here supposed, enters
into the very vitals of the subject, as unfolded in the earlier part
of our inquiry. The reason why typical symbols and institu
tions were employed by God in His former dealings with His
Church, arose from the adoption of a plan which indispensably
required that very progression in the mode of exhibiting Divine
truth. The world was treated for a period as a child that must
be taught great principles, and prepared for events of infinite
magnitude and eternal interest, by the help of familiar and
sensible objects, which lay fully open to their view, and came
within the grasp of their comprehension. But now that we have
to do with the things themselves, for which those means of
preparation were instituted, we must take care, in tracing the
connection between the one and the other, to keep steadily in
view the essential difference between the two periods, and with
the rise in the Divine plan give a corresponding rise to the ap
plication we make of what belonged to the ancient economy.
To proceed without regard to this to look for the proper
counterpart of any particular type in the same class of objects
and interests, as that to which the type itself immediately re
ferred, would be to act like those Judaizing Christians, who,
after the better things had come, held fast at once by type and
antitype, as if they stood upon the same plane, and were con
structed of the same materials. It would be to remain at the
old foundations, while the scheme of God has risen to a higher
place, and laid a new world, as it were, open to our view. If,
therefore, we enter aright into the change which has been
effected in the position of the Divine kingdom, "and give to that
its proper weight in determining the connection between type
and antitype, we must look for things in the one, corresponding,
indeed, to those in the other, but, at the same time, proportionally
higher and greater ; and, in particular, must remember that,
according to the rule, internal things now take the place of
external, and spiritual of bodily.
Much discretion, however, which it is impossible to bound by
196 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
such precise and definite rules as might meet all conceivable
cases, will be necessary in applying the principle now indicated
to individual examples. In the majority of cases there will be
no difficulty ; for the distinction we mention between the Old
and the New is so manifest, as to secure a certain degree of
uniformity even among those who are not remarkable for dis
crimination. And, indeed, the writers most liable to err in other
respects, persons of delicate sensibilities and spiritual feeling,
are less in danger of erring here, as they have usually a clear
perception of the more inward and elevated character of the
Gospel dispensation. The point in regard to which they are
most likely to err concerning it, and that which really forms the
chief difficulty in applying the principle now under consideration,
arises from what may be called the mixed nature of the things
belonging to Messiah s kingdom. As contradistinguished from
those of earlier dispensations, and rising above them, we de
nominate the realities of the Gospel spiritual, heavenly, eternal.
And yet they are not totally disconnected with the objects of
flesh and time. The centre-point of the whole, Jesus Christ,
not only sojourned in bodily form upon the earth, but had cer
tain conditions to fulfil of an outward and bodily kind, which
were described beforehand in prophecy, and may also, of course,
have had their typical adumbrations. In the case of the Church,
too, her life of faith is not altogether of an inward nature, and
confined to the hidden man of the heart. It touches continually
on the corporeal and visible ; and certain events essentially con
nected with her progress and destiny such as the miraculous
gifts of the Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles, the persecutions
of the world, the doom of Antichrist could not take place with
out assuming an outward and palpable form. What, then, it
may be asked, becomes of the characteristic difference between
the Old and the New, so far as such things are concerned?
Must not type and antitype still be found substantially on the
same level ?
By no means. The proper inference is, that there are cases
in which the difference is less broadly marked ; but it still
exists. The operations, experiences, and blessings peculiar to
the dispensation of the Gospel, are not all of a simply inward
and spiritual nature ; but they all bear directly on the interests
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 197
of a spiritual salvation, and the realities of a heavenly and
eternal world. The members of Christ s kingdom, so long as
they are in flesh and blood, must have their history interwoven
on every side with the relations of sense and time, and be them
selves dependent upon outward ordinances for the existence and
nourishment of their spiritual life. Yet, whatever is external in
their privileges and condition, has its internal side, and even its
avowed reason, in things pertaining to the soul s salvation, and
the coming inheritance of glory. So that the spiritual and
heavenly is here always kept prominently in view, as the end
and object of all ; while in Old Testament times everything was
veiled under the sensible relations of flesh and time, and, except
ing to the divinely illuminated eye, seemed as if it did not look
beyond them.
For example, the deluge and baptism so far agree in form,
that they have both an outward operation ; but the operation,
in the one case, has to do directly with the preservation and
destruction of an earthly life, while in the other it bears im
mediately upon the life of immortality in the soul. The cruci
fixion of Christ and the slaying of the paschal lamb were alike
outward transactions ; but the direct and ostensible result con
templated in the first, was salvation from the condemnation and
punishment of sin ; in the second, escape from corporeal death,
and deliverance from the yoke of an earthly bondage. In like
manner, it might be said to be as much an outward transaction
for Christ to ascend personally into the presence of the Father,
as for the high priest to go within the veil with the blood of
the yearly atonement ; but to rectify men s relation to a worldly
sanctuary and an earthly inheritance, was the immediate object
sought by this action of the high priest, while the appearance
of Christ in the heavenly places was to secure for His people
access to the everlasting kingdom of light and glory. In such
cases, the common property of a certain outwardness in the acts
and operations referred to, is far from placing them on the
same level ; a higher element still appears in the one as com
pared with the other. But if, on the other hand, we should
say, as has often been said, that Isaac s bearing the wood for
the altar typified Christ s bearing His cross to Calvary, we
bring together two circumstances which do stand precisely upon
198 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the same level, are alike outward in their nature, and in the
one no more than in the other involve any rise to a higher
sphere of truth. Else, how should a common man, Cimon
the Cyrenian, have shared with Christ in the bearing of the
burden ?
But, undoubtedly, the most pernicious examples of this false
style of typical applications are those which, from comparatively
early times, have been employed to assimilate the New Testa
ment economy in its formal appearance and administration to
the Old, and for which Koine is able to avail herself of the
authority of many of the more distinguished fathers. By
means chiefly of mistaken parallels from Jewish to Christian
times, mistaken, because they virtually ignored the rise that
had taken place in the Divine economy, everything was
gradually brought back from the apostolic ideal of a spiritual
community, founded on the perfect atonement and priesthood
of Christ, to the outwardness and ritualism of ancient times.
The sacrifices of the law, it was thought, must have their
correspondence in the offering of the Eucharist ; and as every
sacrificial offering must have a priest to present it, so the priest
hood of the Old Covenant, determined by genealogical descent,
must find its substitute in a priesthood determined by apostolical
succession. It was but a step farther, and one quite natural in
the circumstances, to hold that as the ancient hierarchy cul
minated in a High-priest of Jerusalem, so the Christian must
have a similar culmination in the Bishop of Rome. In these
and many similar applications of Old Testament things to the
ceremonial institutions and devices of Romanism, there is a
substantial perpetuation of the Judaizing error of apostolic
times an adherence to the oldness and carnality of the letter,
after the spiritual life and more elevated standing of the New
has come. According to it, everything in Christianity as well
as in Judaism is made to turn upon formal distinctions and
ritual observances : and that not the less because of a certain
introduction of the higher element, as in the substitution of
apostolical succession and the impressed character of the new
priesthood, for the genealogical descent and family relationship
of the old. Such slight alterations only affect the mode of get
ting at the outward things established, but leave the outwardness
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 199
itself unaffected; they are of no practical avail in lifting Chris
tianity above the old Judaistic level. 1
The Protestant Church, however, has not been without its
false typical applications, proceeding on the same fundamental
mistake. They are found especially among the Grotian school
of divines, whose low and carnal tone is continually betraying
itself in a tendency to depress and lower the spiritual truths of
the Gospel to a conformity with the simple letter of Old Testa
ment Scripture. The Gospel is read not only through a Jewish
medium, but also in a Jewish sense, and nothing but externals
admitted in the New, wherever there is descried, in the form of
the representation, any reference to such in the Old. It is one
of the few services which neological exegesis has rendered to
the cause of Divine truth, that by a process of exhaustion it has
nearly emptied this meagre style of interpretation of the measure
of plausibility it originally possessed. But it is still occasionally
followed, in the particular respect now under consideration, by
theological writers of a higher stamp. Thus, the doctrine of
election, as unfolded in the epistles of the New Testament, is
held by the advocates of a modified Arminianism to be impro
perly understood of an appointment to personal salvation and
an eternal life, on the special ground that the election of the
Jewish people was only their calling as a nation to outward
privileges and a temporal inheritance. Rightly understood,
however, this is rather a reason why election in the Christian
sense should be made to embrace something higher and better.
For the proper counterpart under the Gospel to those external
relations of Judaism is the gift of grace and the heirship of
glory the lower in the one case shadowing the higher in the
other the outward and temporal representing the spiritual and
eternal. Even Macknight, who cannot certainly be charged
with any excess of the spiritual element in his interpretations,
perceived the necessity of making, as he expresses it, " the
natural seed the type of the spiritual, and the temporal blessings
the emblems of the eternal." Hence, he justly regards the out
ward professing Church in the one case, with its election to the
earthly Canaan, as answering in the other to the " invisible
1 See this subject admirably treated in Mr Litton s work on the Church,
p. 53 5, sec. 7 ; also his Bampton Lecture, Sermon viii.
200 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Church, consisting of believers of all nations, who, partaking
the nature of God by faith and holiness, are truly the sons of
God, and have the inheritance of His blessing." 1
The characteristic differences, with their respective limita
tions and apparent anomalies, may be briefly stated thus : It
belongs properly to the New dispensation to reveal divine and
spiritual things distinctly to the soul, while in the Old they are
presented under the veil of something outward and earthly.
The spiritual and divine itself, which always, as a living under
current, ran beneath this exterior veil, might, even during the
existence of the Old, come directly into view ; but whenever it
did so, there was no longer a figure or type of the true, but the
true itself. Thus, in so far as the seed of Israel were found an
election of God, actually partaking of the grace and blessing of
the covenant, in so far as they were a royal priesthood, circum-
1 On Rom. ix. 8. For the other side see Wlritby on the same chapter,
and on 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; Graves Works, vol. iii., p. 233. Archbishop Whately,
in his Essays on the Peculiarities of the Gospel, p. 95, gives the representa
tion a somewhat different turn from Whitby and Graves. He regards the
Israelites as not having been " elected absolutely and infallibly to enter the
promised land, to triumph over their enemies, and live in security, wealth,
and enjoyment ; but only to the privilege of having these blessings placed
within their reach, on the condition of their obeying the law which God had
given them." Whence, he infers, Christians are only elected in the same
sense to the privileges of a Gospel condition and the promise of final sal
vation. In regard to election in the Gospel sense, such a representation
vanishes before a few plain texts, such as, " Many are called, but few are
chosen ; " " elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus ; " " according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of
the world . . . having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to Himself." If such passages do not imply election to a state
of personal salvation, it is not in the power of language to express the idea.
In regard to the Israelites, also, the election and the promise were made
absolutely, " to thy seed will I give this laud," and the proper inference
respecting those who afterwards perished in the wilderness, without being
permitted to enter the land, is simply, that they were not of that portion of
the seed who were elect, according to the foreknowledge of God, to the pro
mised inheritance. It is true they might justly be said to have lost it for
disobeying the law ; but viewed in respect to their connection with the
calling and promise of God, it was their want of faith to connect them with
these, their unbelief, which was the source of perdition, the root at once of
their disobedience, and of the disinheritance which ensued. (Heb. iii. 19).
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 201
cised in heart to the Lord, they showed themselves to be pos
sessed of the reality of a justified condition and a regenerated
life. The exhibitions that may have been given by any of them
of such a state, were not typical in the sense of foreshadowing
something higher and better under the Gospel ; and if those
in whom they appeared are spoken of as types, it must be as
specimens, not as adumbrations patterns of what is common to
the children of faith in every age. The only connection pos
sible in such a case, is that which subsists between type and
impression, exemplar and copy, not that between type and
antitype.
Turning to the things of the New dispensation, we have
simply to reverse the statement now r made. While here the
spiritual and divine are exhibited in unveiled clearness, it is
quite conceivable that they may at times have appeared under
the distinctive guise of the Old, imbedded in fleshly and material
forms. Especially might this be expected to happen at the be
ginning of the Gospel, when the transition was in the course of
being made from the Old to the New, as the Messiah came
forth to lay the foundations of His spiritual and everlasting
kingdom on the external theatre of a present world. It was
natural at such a time for God graciously to accommodate His
ways to a weak faith, and facilitate its exercise, by making the
things that appeared under the New, wear the very livery of
those that prefigured them under the Old. This is precisely
what was done in some of the more noticeable parts of Christ s
earthly history. But in so far as it was done, that is, in so far
as some outward transaction in the Old reappeared in a like
outward transaction in the New, their relation to each other
could not properly be that of type and antitype, but only of
exemplar and copy, unless the New Testament transaction,
while it bore a formal resemblance to that of the Old, was itself
at the same time the sensible exponent of some higher truth.
If it were this, then the relation would still be substantially that
of type and antitype. And such indeed it is, in the few cases
which actually fall within the range of these remarks, and
which, when superficially viewed, seem at variance with the
principle of interpretation we are seeking to establish.
Let us, in conclusion, glance at the cases themselves. The
202 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUKE.
recall of the infant Jesus from the land of Egypt, after a tem
porary sojourn there, is regarded by the Evangelist Matthew as
the correlative in New Testament times to the deliverance of
Israel under the Old. It is impossible to overlook the indica
tion of a similar connection, though none of the evangelists
have expressly noticed it, between Israel s period of trial and
temptation for forty years in the wilderness, and Christ s with
drawal into the wilderness to be tempted forty days of the devil.
The Evangelist John sets the singular and apparently accidental
preservation of Christ s limbs on the cross, beside the prescrip
tion regarding the paschal lamb, not to let a bone of him be
broken, and sees in the one a divinely appointed compliance
with the other (ch. xix. 36). And in the Epistle to the Hebrews
(ch. xiii. 12), the crucifixion of Jesus beyond the gates of Jeru
salem is represented, not indeed as done to establish a necessary,
but still as exhibiting an actual, correspondence with the treat
ment of those sin-offerings which were burned without the
camp. There can be no doubt that in each of these instances
of formal agreement between the Old and the New, the trans
actions look as if they were on the same level, and appear
equally outward in the one as in the other. Shall we say then,
that on this account they do not really stand to each other in
the relation of type and antitype ? or that there was some pecu
liarity in the later transactions, which still, amid the apparent
sameness, raised them to a sufficient elevation above the earlier ?
This last supposition we conceive to be the correct one.
First of all, it was not unnatural, when there was so little
faith in the Church, and when such great things were in the
course of being accomplished, that certain outward and palpable
correspondences, such as we have noticed, should have been
exhibited. It was a kind and gracious accommodation on the
part of God to the ignorance and weakness of the times. The
people were almost universally looking in the wrong direction
for the things connected with the person and kingdom of Mes
siah ; and He mercifully controlled in various respects the
course and progress of events, so as, in a manner, to force on
their notice the marvellous similarity of His working now to
what He had done in the days of old. He did what was fitted
to impress visibly upon the darker features of the evangelical
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES AND DIRECTIONS. 203
history His own image and superscription, and to mark them
out to men s view as wrought according to the law of a foreseen
and pre-established harmony. Yet we should not expect such
obvious and palpable marks of agreement to be commonly
stamped by the hand of God upon the new things of His king
dom, as compared with the old ; we should rather regard them
as a sort of extraordinary and peculiar helps granted to a weak
and unenlightened faith at the beginnings of the kingdom.
And even when so granted, we should not expect them to con
stitute the whole of the matter, but should suppose something
farther to be veiled under them than immediately meets the eye
a deeper agreement, of which the one outwardly appearing
was little more than the sign and herald.
This supposition gathers strength when we reflect that the
outward agreement, however manifest and striking in some
O O
respects, is still never so uniform and complete as to convey the
impression that the entire stress lay there, or that it was de
signed to be anything more than a stepping-stone for the mind
to rise higher. Thus, while the child Jesus was for a time
t? /
located in Egypt, and again brought out of it by the special
providence of God, like Israel in its youth ; yet what a differ
ence between the two cases in the length of time spent in the
transactions, and the whole circumstances connected with their
accomplishment ! Jesus and Israel alike underwent a period of
temptation in a wilderness before entering on their high calling ;
but again, how widely different in the actual region selected
for the scene of trial, and the time during which it was con
tinued ! Christ s crucifixion beyond the gates of Jerusalem,
and the preservation of His limbs from external violence, ex
hibited a striking resemblance to peculiarities in the sacrifices of
the passover and sin-offering enough to mark the overruling
agency of God ; but in other outward things there were scarcely
less marked discrepancies nothing, for example, in the sacri
fices referred to, corresponding with the pierced side of Jesus,
or His suspension on the cross ; and nothing again in Jesus
formally answering to the sacrificial rites of the imposition of
hands, the sprinkling of blood, or the burning of the carcase.
These, and other defects that might be named in the external
correspondence between the New and the Old, plainly enough
204 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
indicate that the outward agreement was, after all, not the main
thing, nor the thing that properly constituted the typical con
nection between them. Else, where such agreement failed, the
connection must have failed too ; and in many respects Christ
should not have been the "body" of the ancient shadows in
more, perhaps, than those in which He actually was. Who
would not shrink from such a conclusion ? But we can find no
consistent reason for avoiding it, except on the ground that the
occasional outward coincidences between our Lord s personal
history and things in God s earlier dispensations, were the signs
of a tvpical relationship rather than that relationship itself, a
likeness merely on the surface, that gave notice of a deeper and
more essential agreement.
This peculiarity in some of the typical applications of Scrip
ture, has its parallel in the applications also sometimes made of
the prophecies. We merely point for examples to the employ
ment by St John, ch. xix. 37, of Zech. xii. 10, " They shall
look on Me whom they have pierced," or by St Matthew in ch.
ii. 23, viii. 17, of other prophetical testimonies, and refer to the
explanations given of them in our Appendix. In such cases it
is obvious, on a little reflection, that the outward and corporeal
things with which the word of prophecy is immediately con
nected, fell so far short of their full meaning, that if they were
fitly regarded as a fulfilment of what had been spoken, it was
more because of the index they afforded to other and greater
things yet to come, than of what was accomplished in themselves.
It was like pointing to the little cloud in the horizon, which may
be scarcely worth noticing in itself, but which assumes another
aspect when it is discerned to be the sign and the forerunner of
gathering vapours, and floods of drenching rain. The begin
ning and the end, the present sign and the coming reality, are
then seen blending together, and appear to form but one object.
CHAPTER SEVENTH.
THE PLACE DUE TO THE SUBJECT OF TYPOLOGY AS A BRANCH
OF THEOLOGICAL STUDY, AND THE ADVANTAGES ARISING
FROM ITS PROPER CULTIVATION.
THE loose and incorrect views which so long prevailed on the
subject of Typology, and which, till recently, had taken a direc
tion tending at once to circumscribe their number and lessen
their importance, have had the effect of reducing it to little more
than a nominal place in the arrangement of topics calling for
exact theological discussion. For any real value to be attached
to it in the order of God s revelations, or any light it is fitted to
throw, when rightly understood, on the interpretation of Scrip
ture, we search in vain amid the writings of our leading herme-
neutical and systematic divines. The treatment it has most
commonly received at their hands is rather negative than posi
tive. They appear greatly more concerned about the abuses to
which it may be carried, than the advantages to which it may be
applied. And were it not for the purpose of exploding errors,
delivering cautions, and disowning unwarrantable conclusions, it
is too plain the subject would scarcely have been deemed worthy
of any separate and particular consideration.
If the discussion pursued through the preceding chapters has
been conducted with any success, it must have tended to produce
a somewhat different feeling upon the subject. Various points
of moment connected with the purposes of God and the inter
pretation of Scripture must have suggested themselves to the
reflective reader, as capable both of receiving fresh light, and
of acquiring new importance from a well-grounded system of
Typology. One entire branch of the subject its connection
with the closely related field of prophecy has already, on ac
count of the principles involved in it, been considered in a
separate chapter. At present we shall look to some other points
of a more general kind, which have, however, an essential bear-
206 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
ing on the character of a Divine revelation, and which will
enable us to present, in a variety of lights, the reasonableness and
importance of the views we have been endeavouring to establish.
I. We mark, first, an analogy in God s methods of prepara
tory instruction, as adopted by Him at different but somewhat
corresponding periods of the Church s history. In one brief
period of its existence, the Church of the New Testament might
be said to stand in a very similar relation to the immediate future,
that the Church of the Old Testament generally did to the more
distant future of Gospel times. It was the period of our Lord s
earthly ministry, during which the materials were in preparation
for the actual establishment of His kingdom, and His disciples
were subjected to the training which was to fit them for taking
part in its affairs. The process that had been proceeding for
ages with the Church, had, in their experience, to be virtually
begun and completed in the short space of a few years. And
we are justly warranted to expect, that the method adopted
during this brief period of special preparation toward the first
members of the New Testament Church, should present some
leading features of resemblance to that pursued with the Old
Testament Church as a whole, during her immensely more
lengthened period of preparatory training.
Now, the main peculiarity, as we have seen, of God s method
of instruction and discipline in respect to the Old Testament
Church, consisted in the use of symbol and action. It was
chiefly by means of historical transactions and symbolical rites
that the ancient believers were taught what they knew of the
truths and mysteries of grace. For the practical guidance and
direction of their conduct they were furnished with means of in
formation the most literal and express ; but in regard to the
spiritual concerns and objects of the Messiah s kingdom, all was
couched under veil and figure. The instruction given addressed
itself to the eye rather than to the ear. It came intermingled
with the things they saw and handled ; and while it necessarily
made them familiar with the elements of Gospel truth, it not
less necessarily left them in comparative ignorance as to the
particular events and operations in which the truth was to find
its ultimate and proper realization.
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 207
How entirely analogous was the course pursued by our Lord
with His immediate disciples during the period of His earthly
ministry! The direct instruction He imparted to them was,
with few exceptions, confined to lessons of moral truth and duty
freeing the law of God from the false glosses of a carnal and
corrupt priesthood, which had entirely overlaid its meaning, and
disclosing the pure and elevated principles on which His king
dom was to be founded. But in regard to what might be called
the mysteries of the kingdom, the constitution of Christ s per
son, the peculiar character of Plis work as the .Redeemer of a
sinful and fallen world, and the connection of all with a higher
and future world, little instruction of a direct kind was im
parted up to the very close of Christ s earthly ministry. On one
or two occasions, when He sought to convey more definite infor
mation upon such points, the disciples either completely misunder
stood His meaning, or showed themselves incapable of profiting
by His instructions (Matt. xvi. 21-23; Luke xviii. 34; John ii.
19-22, vi.). So that in the last discourse He held with them
before His death, He spoke of the many things He had yet to
say to them, but which, as they still could not bear them, had
to be reserved to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, who should
come and lead them into all the truth. Were they, therefore,
left without instruction of any kind respecting those higher
truths and mysteries of the kingdom ? By no means ; for
throughout the whole period of their connection with Christ,
they were constantly receiving such instruction as could be con
veyed through action and symbol ; or more correctly, through
action and allegory, which was here made to take the place of
symbol, and served substantially the same design.
The public life of Jesus was full of action, and in that, to a
large extent, consisted its fulness of instruction. Every miracle
He performed was a type in history ; for, on the outward and
visible field of nature, it revealed the Divine power He was
going to manifest, and the work He came to achieve in the
higher field of grace. In every act of healing men s bodily dis
eases, and supplying of men s bodily wants, there was an ex
hibition to the eye of sense at once of His purpose to bring
salvation to their souls, and of the principles on which that sal
vation should proceed. In like manner, when He resorted to
208 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the parabolic method of instruction, it was but another employ
ment of the familiar and sensible things of nature, under the
form of allegory, to convey still farther instruction respecting
the spiritual and Divine things of His kingdom. The procedure,
no doubt, involved a certain exercise of judgment toward those
who had failed to profit, as they ought, by His more simple and
direct teaching (Matt. xiii. 11-15). But for His own disciples
it formed a cover, through which He could present to them a
larger amount of spiritual truth, and impart a more correct idea
of His kingdom, than it was possible for them, as yet, by any
other method to obtain. Every parable contained an allegorical
representation of some particular aspect of the kingdom, which,
like the types of an earlier dispensation, only needed to be
illuminated by the facts of Gospel history, to render it a clear
and intelligible image of spiritual and Divine realities. In all,
the outward and earthly was made to present the form of the
inward and heavenly.
Thus, the special training of our Lord s disciples very closely
corresponded to the course of preparatory dispensations through
which the Church at large was conducted before the time of
His appearing. Such an analogy, pursued in circumstances
so altered, and through periods so widely different, bespeaks the
consistent working and presiding agency of Him " who is the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." It furnishes also a ready
and effective answer to the Socinian argument against the
peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, on account of the comparative
silence maintained respecting them in the direct instructions of
Christ. " Can such doctrines," they have sometimes asked,
" enter so essentially, as is alleged, into the original plan of
Christianity, when its Divine author Himself says so little about
them when in all He taught His disciples there is at most but
a limited number of passages which seem even to point with
any definiteness in that direction?" Look, we reply, to the
analogy of God s dealings with His Church, and let that supply
the answer. Christ and the mysteries of His redemption were
the end of all the earlier proceedings of God, and of the institu
tions of worship He gave to His Church ; and yet many cen
turies of preparatory instruction and discipline were permitted
to elapse before the objects themselves were brought distinctly
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 209
into view. Should it then be deemed strange or unaccountable
that the persons immediately chosen by Christ to announce them,
were made to undergo a brief but perfectly similar preparatory
course, under the eye of their Divine Master? It could not
have been otherwise. The facts of Christianity are the basis of
its doctrines ; and until those facts had become matter of history,
the doctrines could neither be explicitly taught nor clearly
understood. They could only be obscurely represented to the
mind through the medium of typical actions, symbolical rites,
or parabolical narratives. And it results as much from the
essential nature of things as from the choice of its Divine
Author, that the mode of instruction, which was continued
through the lengthened probation of the Old Testament
Church, should have found its parallel in "the beginning of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
II. But there is an analogy of faith and practice which is of
still greater importance than any analogy that may appear in the
methods of instruction. However important it may be to note
resemblances in the mode of communicating Divine truth, at one
period as compared with another, it is more so to know that the
truth, however communicated, has always been found one in its
tendency and working ; that the earlier and the later, the Old
and the New Testament Churches, though differing widely in
light and privilege, yet breathed the same spirit, walked by the
same rule, possessed and manifested the same elements of cha
racter. A correct acquaintance with the Typology of Scripture
alone explains how, with such palpable differences subsisting
between them, there should still have been such essential uni
formity in the result.
In the writings of the New Testament, especially in the
epistles, it is very commonly the differences between the Old and
the New, rather than the agreements, that are pressed on our
notice. A necessity for this arose from the abuse to which the
Jews had turned the handwriting of ordinances delivered to
them by Moses. In the carnality of their minds, they mistook
the means for the end, embraced the shadow for the substance,
and so converted what had been set up for the express purpose
of leading them to Christ, into a mighty stumbling-block to
VOL. I. O
210 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
obstruct the way of their approach to Him. On this account it
became necessary to bring prominently out the differences be
tween the preparatory and the ultimate schemes of God, and to
show that what was perfectly suited to the one was quite un-
suited to the other. But there were, at the same time, many
real agreements of a most essential nature between them, and
these also are often referred to in New Testament Scripture.
Moses and Christ, when closely examined and viewed as to the
more fundamental parts of their respective systems, are found
to teach in perfect harmony with each other. The law and the
prophets of the Old Testament, and the gospels and epistles of
the New, exhibit but different phases of the same wondrous
scheme of grace. The light varies from time to time in its
clearness arid intensity, but never as to the elements of which it
is composed. And the very differences which so broadly dis
tinguish the Gospel dispensation from all that went before it,
when taken in connection with the entire plan and purpose of
God, afford evidence of an internal harmony and a profound
agreement.
The truth of what we say, if illustrated to its full extent,
would require us to traverse almost the entire field of Scripture
Typology. We shall therefore content ourselves here with
selecting a single point, which, in its most obvious aspect, belongs
rather to the differences than the agreements between the Old
and the New dispensations. For in what do the two more
apparently and widely differ from each other than in regard to
the place occupied in them respectively by the doctrine of a
future state? In the Scriptures of the New Testament, the
eternal world comes constantly into view ; it meets us in every
page, inspirits every religious character, mingles with every
important truth and obligation, and gives an ethereal tone and
an ennobling impress to the whole genius and framework of
Christianity. Nothing of this, however, is to be found in the
earlier portions of the Word of God. That these contain no
reference of any kind to a future state of rewards and punish
ments, we are far from believing, as will abundantly appear in
the sequel. But still the doctrine of such a state is nowhere
broadly announced, as an essential article of faith, in the revela
tions of Old Testament Scripture ; it has no distinct and easily
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 211
recognised place either in the patriarchal or the Lcvitical dis
pensations ; it is never set forth as a formal ground of action,
and is implied, rather than distinctly affirmed or avowedly acted
on, excepting when it occasionally appears among the confes
sions of pious individuals, or in the later declarations of pro
phecy ; so that, though itself one of the first principles of all
true religion, there yet was maintained respecting it a studied
caution and reserve in the revelations of God to men, up to the
time when He came who was to " bring life and immortality to
light. 1
This obvious difference between the Old and the New Testa
ment revelations, in respect to a future state, has been deemed
such a palpable incongruity, that sometimes the most forced
interpretations have been resorted to with the view of getting
rid of the fact, while, at other times, extravagant theories have
been proposed to account for it. But we have no need to look
farther than to the typical character of God s earlier dispensa
tions for a satisfactory explanation of the difficulty and we shall
find it in nothing else. For, leave this out of view suppose
that God s method of teaching and training the Old Testament
Church was not necessarily formed on the plan of unfolding
Gospel ideas and principles by means of earthly relations and
fleshly symbols, then we see not how it could have consisted with
Divine wisdom to keep such a veil hanging for so many ages
over the realities of a coining eternity. But let the typical
element be duly taken into account ; let it be understood that
inferior and earthly things were systematically employed of old
to image and represent those which are heavenly and Divine ;
and then we shall be equally unable to see how it could have
consisted with Divine wisdom to have disclosed the doctrine of a
future state, otherwise than under the figures and shadows of
what is seen and temporal. For this doctrine, in its naked form,
1 A clear proof in a single instance of what is here said of the Old Testa
ment in respect to an eternal world, may be found in what is written of
Enoch, "He was not, for God took him," and this because he had walked
with God. A causal connection plainly existed between his walk on earth
and his removal to God s presence ; and yet this is so indicated as clearly to
show that it was the Divine purpose to spread a veil of secrecy over the future
world, as if the distinct knowledge of it depended on conditions that could
not then be formally brought out.
212 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
stands inseparably connected with the facts of Christ s death and
resurrection, on which it is entirely based as a ground of con
solation, and an object of hope to the believer. And if the one
had been openly disclosed, while the other still remained under
the veil of temporary shadows, utter confusion must necessarily
have been introduced into the dispensations of God : the Old
Covenant, with ordinances suited only to an inferior and pre
paratory course of training, should have possessed a portion of
the light properly belonging to a complete and finished revela
tion. The ancient Church, with her faith in that case professedly
directed on the eternal world, must have lost her symbolical re
lation to the present; her experiences must have been as spiritual,
her life as hidden, her conflict with temptation, and victory over
the world, as inward as those of believers under the Gospel.
But then the Church of the Old Testament, being without the
clear knowledge of Christ and His salvation, still wanted the
true foundation for so much of a spiritual, inward, and hidden
nature ; and it must have been next to impossible to prevent false
confidences from mingling with her expectations of the future,
since she had only the shadowy and carnal in worship with which
to connect the real and eternal in blessing.
Is this not what actually happened in the case of the later
Jews? In the course of that preparatory training through
which they were conducted, an increasing degree of light was
at length imparted, among other things, in respect to a future
state of reward and punishment ; the later Scriptures contained
not a few quite explicit intimations on the subject (as in Hos.
xiii. 14; Dan. xii. 2; Isa. xxvi. 19); and by the time of
Christ s appearing, the doctrine of a resurrection from the dead
to a world of endless happiness or misery, formed nearly as
distinct and prominent an article in the Jewish faith as it does
now in the Christian. (Acts xxiii. 6, xxvi. 6-8 ; Matt. v. 29,
x. 28, etc.) Now, this had been well, and should have only
disposed the Jews to give to Jesus a more enlightened and
hearty reception, had they been careful to couple with the
clearer view thus obtained, and the more direct introduction of
a future world, the intimations that accompanied it of a higher
and better dispensation of the old things, under which they
lived, being to be done away, that others of a nobler description
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 213
might take their place. But this was what the later Jews, as
a class, failed to do. Partial in their knowledge of Scripture,
and confounding together the things that differed, they took the
prospect of immortality as if it had been directly unfolded, and
ostensibly provided for in the shadowy dispensation itself. The
result necessarily was, that that dispensation ceased in their
view to be shadowy ; it contained in itself, they imagined, the
full apparatus required for sinful men, to redeem them from
the curse of sin, and bring them to eternal life ; and what
ever purposes the Messiah might come to accomplish, that He
should supplant its carnal observances by something of a higher
nature, and more immediately bearing on the immortal interests
of man, formed no part of their expectations concerning Him.
Thus, by coming to regard the doctrine of a future state of
happiness and glory, as, in its naked or direct form, an integral
part of the revelations of the Old Covenant, they naturally fell
into two most serious mistakes. They first overlooked the
shadowy nature of their religion, and exalted it to an undue
rank by looking to it for blessings which it was never intended,
unless typically, to impart ; and then, when the Messiah came,
they entirely misapprehended the great object of His mission,
and lost all participation in His kingdom.
So much, then, for the palpable difference in this respect
between the Old and the New. There was a necessity in the
case, arising from the very nature of the Divine plan. So long
as the Church was under symbolical ordinances and typical
relations, the future world must fall into the background ; the
things concerning it could only appear imaged in the seen and
present. But that they did appear so imaged in this, with all
the outward diversity that prevailed, there still lay an essential
agreement between the Old dispensation and the New. The
minds of believers under the former neither were, nor could be,
an entire blank in regard to a future state of being. From the
very first as we shall see afterwards, when we come to trace
out the elements of the primeval religion there was in God s
dealings and revelations toward them, what in a manner com
pelled them to look beyond a present world; it was so manifestly
impossible to realize here, with any degree of completeness, the
objects He seemed to have in view. And the under-current
214 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
of thought and expectation thus silently awakened toward the
future, was continually fed by everything being arranged and
ordered in the present, so as to establish in their minds a pro
found conviction of a Divine retribution. The things con
nected with their relation to a worldly sanctuary, and an earthly
inheritance of blessing, were one continued illustration of the
principle so firmly expressed by Abraham, " that the Judge of
all the earth must do right;" and, consequently, that in the
final issues of things, " it must be well with the righteous, and
ill with the wicked." The bringing distinctly out of this pre
sent recompense in the Divine administration, and with infinite
variety of light and vividness of colouring, impressing it on the
consciences of God s people, was the peculiar service rendered
by the ancient economy in respect to a coming eternity ; and
the peculiar service which, as a preparatory economy , it required
to render. For the belief of a present retribution must, to a
large extent, form the basis of a well-grounded belief in a
future one. And for the believing Israelite himself, who lived
under the operation of such strong temporal sanctions, and who
was habituated to contemplate the unseen in the seen, the
future in the past, there was everything in the visible move
ments of Providence around him, both to confirm in him the
expectation of a coming state of reward and punishment, and
to form him to the dispositions and conduct which might best
prepare him for meeting it. His position so far differed from
that of believers now, that he was not formally called to direct
his views to the coming world, and he had comparatively
slender means of information concerning its realities. But it
agreed in this, that he too was a child of faith, believing in the
retributive character of God s administration ; and in him, as
well as in us, only in a more outward and sensible manner, this
faith had its trials and dangers, its discouragements, its war-
rings with the flesh and the world, its times of weakness and of
strength, its blessed satisfactions and triumphant victories. In
short, his light, so far as it went, was the same with ours ; it
was the same also in the nature of its influence on his heart and
conduct ; and if he but faithfully did his part amid the scenes
and objects around him, he was equally prepared at its close to
take his place in the mansions of a better inheritance, though
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 215
he might have to go to them as one not knowing whither he
went. 1
Thus it appears, on careful examination, that all was in its
proper place. A mutual adaptation and internal harmony binds
together the Old and the New dispensations, even under the
striking diversity that characterizes the two in respect to a
future world. And the further the investigation is pursued,
the more will such be found to be the case generally. It will
be found that the connection of the Old with the New is some
thing more than typical, in the sense of foreshadowing, or pre-
figurative of what was to come ; it is also inward and organic.
Amid the ostensible differences, there is a pervading unity and
agreement one faith, one life, one hope, one destiny. And
while the Old Testament Church, in its outward condition and
earthly relations, typically shadowed forth the spiritual and
heavenly things of the New, it was also, in so far as it realized
and felt the truth of God presented to it, the living root out of
which the New ultimately sprang. The rude beginnings w r ere
there, of all that exists in comparative perfection now.
III. Another advantage resulting from a correct knowledge
and appreciation of the Typology of ancient Scripture, is the
increased value and importance with which it invests the earlier
portions of revelation. This has respect more especially to the
historical parts of Old Testament Scripture ; yet not to these
exclusively. For the whole of the Old Testament will be
found to rise in our esteem, in proportion as we understand and
enter into its typological bearing. But the point may be more
easily and distinctly illustrated by a reference to its records of
history.
Many ends, undoubtedly, had to be served by these ; and
we must beware of making so much account of one, as if it
were the whole. Even the least interesting and instructive
parts of the historical records, the genealogies, are not without
their use ; for they supply some valuable materials both for the
general knowledge of antiquity, and for our acquaintance, in
particular, with that chosen line of Adam s posterity which was
to have its culmination in Christ. But the narratives in which
1 See Appendix B,
216 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
these genealogies are imbedded, which record the lives of so
many individuals, portray the manners and customs of such dif
ferent ages and nations, and relate the dealings of God s provi
dence and the communications of His mind with so many of
the earliest characters and tribes in the world s history these,
in themselves, and apart altogether from any prospective re
ference they may have to Gospel times, are on many accounts
interesting and instructive. Nor can they be attentively perused,
as simple records of the past, without being found " profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness."
Yet when viewed only in that light, one-half their worth is
still not understood ; nor shall we be able altogether to avoid
some feeling of strangeness occasionally at the kind of notices
embraced in the inspired narrative. For whatever interest and
instruction may be connected with it, how trifling often are the
incidents it records ! how limited the range to which it chiefly
draws our attention ! and how easy might it seem, at various
points, to have selected other histories, which would have led
the mind through scenes more obviously important in them
selves, and less closely, perhaps, interwoven with evil ! Unbe
lievers have often given to such thoughts as these an obnoxious
form, and have endeavoured by means of them to bring sacred
Scripture into discredit. But in doing so, they have only dis
played their own onesidedness and partiality ; they have looked
at this portion of the Word of God in a contracted light, and
away from its proper connection with the entire plan of revela
tion. Let the notices of Old Testament history be viewed in
their subservience to the scheme of grace unfolded in the Gos
pel let the field which it traverses, however limited in extent,
and the transactions it describes, however unimportant in a
political respect, be regarded as that field, and those transactions,
through which, as on a lower and common stage, the Lord
sought to familiarize the minds of His people with the truths
and principles which were ultimately to appear in the highest
affairs of His kingdom let the notices of Old Testament history
be viewed in this light, which is the one that Scripture itself
brings prominently forward, and then what dignity and impor
tance is seen to attach to every one of them! The smallest
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 217
movements on the earth s surface acquire a certain greatness,
when connected with the law of gravitation ; since then even
the fall of an apple from the tree stands related to the revolution
of the planets in their courses. And, in like manner, the
relation which the historical facts of ancient Scripture bear
to the glorious work and kingdom of Christ, gives to the least
of them such a character of importance, that they are brought
within the circle of God s highest purposes, and are perceived
to be in reality "the connecting links of that golden chain
which unites heaven and earth."
This, however, is not all. While a proper understanding of
the Typology of Scripture imparts an air of grandeur and im
portance to its smallest incidents, and makes the little relatively
great, it does more. It warrants us to proceed a step farther,
and to assert, that such personal narratives and comparatively
little incidents as fill up a large portion of the history, not only
might, without impropriety, have been admitted into the sacred
record, but that they must, to some extent have been found there,
in order to adapt it properly to the end which it was intended to
serve. It was precisely the limited and homely character of
many of the things related, which rendered them such natural
and easy stepping-stones to the discoveries of a higher dispensa
tion. It is one thing that an arrangement exists in nature,
which comprehends under the same law the falling of an apple
to the ground, and the vast movements of the heavenly bodies ;
but it is another thing, and also true, that the perception of
that law, as manifested in the motion of the small and ter
restrial body because manifested there on a scale which man
could bring fully within the grasp of his comprehension was
what enabled him to mount upwards and scan the similar,
though incomparably grander, phenomena of the distant universe.
In this case, there was not only a connection in nature between
the little and the great, but also such a connection in the order of
man s acquaintance with both, that it was the knowledge of the
one that conducted him to the knowledge of the other. The
connection is much the same that exists between the facts of Old
Testament history and the all-important revelations of the Gos
pel with this difference, indeed, that the laws and principles
developed amid the familiar objects and comparatively humble
218 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
scenes of the one, were not so properly designed to fit man for
discovering, as for receiving when discovered, the sublime
mysteries of the other. But to do this, it was not less necessary
here than in the case above referred to, that the earlier develop
ments should have been made in connection with things of a
diminutive nature, such as the occurrences of individual history,
or the transactions of a limited kingdom. A series of events
considerably more grand and majestic could not have accom
plished the object in view. They would have been too far re
moved from the common course of things ; and would have been
more fitted to gratify the curiosity and dazzle the imagination of
those who witnessed or read of them, than to indoctrinate their
minds with the fundamental truths and principles of God s
spiritual economy. This result could be best produced by such
a series of transactions as we find actually recorded in the Scrip
tures of the Old Testament transactions infinitely varied, yet
always capable of being quite easily grasped and understood.
And thus, what to a superficial consideration appears strange,
or even objectionable, in the structure of the inspired record,
becomes, on a more comprehensive view, an evidence of wise
adaptation to the wants of our nature, and of supernatural
foresight in adjusting one portion of the Divine plan to another.
It will be readily understood, that what we have said of the
purpose of God with reference more immediately to those who
lived in Old Testament times, applies, without any material dif
ference, to such as are placed under the Christian dispensation.
For what the transactions required to be for the accomplishment
of God s purpose in regard to the one, the record of these trans
actions required to be for the accomplishment of His purpose
in regard to the other. Whatever confirmation such things may
lend to our faith in the mysteries of God whatever force or
clearness to our perceptions of the truth whatever encourage
ment to our hopes or direction to our walk in the life of holiness
and virtue, it may all be said to depend upon the history being
composed of facts so homely in their character and so circum
scribed in their range, that the mind can without difficulty both
realize their existence and enter into their spirit.
IV. Another service, the last we shall notice, which a truly
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 219
Scriptural Typology is fitted to render to the cause of Divine
knowledge and practice, is the aid it furnisher to help out spiritual
ideas in our minds, and enable us to realize them with sufficient
clearness and certainty. This follows very closely on the consi
deration last mentioned, and may be regarded rather as a further
application of the truth contained in it, than the advancement of
something altogether new. But we wish to draw attention to an
important advantage, not yet distinctly noticed, connected with
the typical element in Old Testament Scripture, and on which
to a considerable extent the people of God are still dependent
for the strength and liveliness of their faith.
It is true, they have now the privilege of a full revelation of
the mind of God respecting the truths of salvation ; and this
elevates their condition as to spiritual things far above that of
the Old Testament believers. But it does not thence follow,
that they can in all respects so distinctly apprehend the truth in
its naked spirituality, as to be totally independent of some out
ward exhibition of it. We are still in a state of imperfection,
and are so much creatures of sense, that our ideas of abstract
truth, even in natural science, often require to be aided by visible
forms and representations. But things strictly spiritual and
divine are yet more difficult to be brought distinctly within the
reach and comprehension of the mind. It was a relative advan
tage possessed by the Old Testament worshipper, in connection
with his worldly sanctuary, and the more fleshly dispensation
under which he lived, that spiritual and divine things, so far as
they were revealed to him, acquired a sort of local habitation to
his view, and assumed the appearance of a life-like freshness and
reality. Hence chiefly arose that " impression of passionate in
dividual attachment," as it has been called, which, in the authors
of the Old Testament Scriptures, appears mingling with and
vivifying their faith in the invisible, and which breathes in them
like a breath of supernatural life. What Hengstenberg has said
in this respect of the Book of Psalms, may be extended to Old
Testament Scripture generally : " It has contributed vast mate
rials for developing the consciousness of mankind, and the Chris
tian Church is more dependent on it for its apprehensions of
God than might at first sight be supposed. It presents God so
clearly and vividly before men s eyes, that they see Him, in a
220 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
manner, with their bodily sight, and thus find the sting taken
out of their pains. In this, too, lies one great element of its
importance for the present times. What men now most of all
need, is to have the blanched image of God again freshened up
in them. And the more closely we connect ourselves with these
sacred writings, the more will God cease to be to us a shadowy
form, which can neither hear, nor help, nor judge us, and to
which we can present no supplication." 1
Besides, there are portions of revealed truth which relate to
events still future, and. do not at all come within the range of
our present observation and experience, though very important
as objects of faith and hope to the Church. It might materially
facilitate our conception of these, and strengthen our belief in
the certainty of their coming existence, if we could look back to
some corresponding exemplar of things, either in the symbolical
handwriting of ordinances, or in the typical transactions of an
earthly and temporal kingdom. But this also has been pre
pared to our hand by God in the Scriptures of the Old Testa
ment. And to show how much may be derived from a right
acquaintance, both in this and in the other respect mentioned,
with the typical matter of these Scriptures, we shall give here
a twofold illustration of the subject the one referring to truths
affecting the present state and condition of believers, and the
other to such as respect the still distant future.
1. For our first illustration we shall select a topic that will
enable us, at the same time, to explain a commonly misunder
stood passage of Scripture. The passage is 1 Pet. i. 2, where,
speaking of the elevated condition of believers, the Apostle de
scribes them as " elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father, through sanctifi cation of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." The peculiar
part of the description is the last " sprinkling with the blood
of Jesus Christ " which, being represented along with obe
dience as the end to which believers are both elected of the
Father and sanctified of the Spirit, seems at first sight to be
out of its proper place. The application of the blood of Christ
is usually thought of in reference to the pardon of sin, or its
efficacy in the matter of the soul s justification before God ;
1 Supplem. Treatises on Psalms, vii.
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 221
when, of course, its place stands between the election of the
Father and the sanctification of the Spirit. Nor, in that most
common reference to the effect of Christ s blood, is it of small
advantage for the attainment of a clear and realizing faith, that
we have in many of the Levitical services, and especially in
those of the great day of yearly atonement, an outward form
and pattern of things by which more distinctly to picture out
the sublime spiritual reality.
v^t is plain, however, that the sprinkling of Christ s blood,
mentioned by St Peter, is not that which has for its effect the
sinner s pardon and acceptance (although Leighton and most
commentators have so understood it) ; for it is not only coupled
with a personal obedience, as being somewhat of the same
nature, but the two together are set forth as the result of the
electing and sanctifying grace of God upon the soul. The
good here intended must be something inward and personal ;
something not wrought for us, but wrought upon us and in us ;
implying our justification, as a gift already received, but itself
belonging to a higher and more advanced stage of our experi
ence to the very top and climax of our sanctification. What,
then, is it ? Nothing new, certainly, or of rare occurrence in
the Word of God, but one often described in the most explicit
terms; while yet the idea involved in it is so spiritual and
elevated, that we greatly need the aid of the Old Testament
types to give strength and vividness to our conceptions of it.
The blood of the sacrifices, by which the covenant was ratified
at the altar in the wilderness, was divided into two parts, with
one of which Moses sprinkled the altar, and with the other the
people (Exod. xxiv. 6-8). A similar division and application
of the blood was made at the consecration of Aaron to the
priesthood (Exod. xxix. 20, 21) ; and though it does not ap
pear to have been formally, it was yet virtually, done on the
day of the yearly atonement, since all the sprinklings on that
day were made by the high priest, for the cleansing of defile
ments belonging to himself, his household, and the whole con
gregation. "Now" (says Steiger on 1 Pet. i. 2), "if we
represent to ourselves the whole work of redemption, in allusion
to this rite, it will be as follows : The expiation of one and of
all sin, the propitiation, was accomplished when Christ offered
222 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
His blood to God on the altar of the accursed tree. That done,
He went with His blood into the most Holy Place. Whoso
ever looks in faith to His blood, has part in the atonement
(Rom. iii. 25) ; that is, he is justified on account of it, receiving
the full pardon of all his sins (Rom. v. 9). Thenceforth he
can appear with the whole community of believers (1 John i.
7), full of boldness and confidence before the throne of grace
(Heb. iv. 16), in order that he may be purified by Christ, as
high priest, from every evil lust." It is this personal purify
ing from every evil lust, which the Apostle describes in ritual
language as " the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," and
which is also described in the Epistle to the Hebrews, with a
similar reference to the blood of Christ, by having " the heart
sprinkled from an evil conscience," and again, " by having the
conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God."
The sprinkling or purging spoken of in these several passages,
is manifestly the cleansing of the soul from all internal defile
ment, so as to dispose and fit it for whatever is pure and good,
and the purifying effect is produced by the sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus, or its spiritual application to the conscience of
believers, because the blessed result is attained through the
holy and divine life, represented by that blood, becoming truly
and personally theirs.
Now, this great truth is certainly taught with the utmost
plainness in many passages of Scripture, as, when it is written
of believers, that " their hearts are purified by faith ;" that they
"purify themselves, even as Christ is pure;" or when it is
said, that " Christ lives in them," that " their life is hid with Him
in God," that " they are in Him that is true, and cannot sin, be
cause their seed (the seed of that new, spiritual nature, to which
they have been quickened by fellowship with the life of Jesus)
remains in them;" and, in short, in every passage which con
nects with the pure and spotless life-blood of Jesus an imparta-
tion of life-giving grace and holiness to His people. I can
understand the truth, even when thus spiritually, and, if I may
so say, nakedly expressed. But I feel that I can obtain a more
clear and comforting impression of it, when I keep my eye upon
the simple and striking exhibition given of it in the visible type.
For, with what effect was the blood of atonement sprinkled upon
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 223
the true worshippers of the Old Covenant ? With the effect of
making whatever sacredness, whatever virtue (symbolically) was
in that blood, pass over upon them : the life, which in it had
flowed out in holy offering to God, was given to be theirs, and
to be by them laid out in all pure and faithful ministrations of
righteousness. Such precisely is the effect of Christ s blood
sprinkled on the soul ; it is to have His life made our life, or to
become one with Him in the stainless purity and perfection
which expressed itself in His sacrifice of sweet-smelling savour
to the Father. What a sublime and elevating thought ! . It is
much, assuredly, for me to know, that, by faith in His blood,
the crimson guilt of my sins is blotted out, Heaven itself recon
ciled, and the way into the holiest of all laid freely open for my
approach. But it is much more still to know, that by faith in
the same blood, realized and experienced through the power of
the Holy Spirit, I am made a partaker of its sanctifying virtue ;
the very holiness of the Holy One of Israel passes into me ; His
life-blood becomes in my soul the well-spring of a new and
deathless existence. So that to be sealed up to this fountain of
life, is to be raised above the defilement of nature, to dwell in
the light of God, and sit as in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
And, amid the imperfections of our personal experience, and the
clouds ever and anon raised in the soul by remaining sin, it
should unquestionably be to us a matter of unfeigned thankful
ness, that we can repair to such a lively image of the truth as is
presented in the Old Testament service, in which, as in a mirror,
we can see how high in this respect is the hope of our calling,
and how much it is God s purpose we should enter into the
blessing.
2. There are revelations in the Gospel, however, which point
to events still future in the Messiah s kingdom ; and in respect
to these, also, the typical arrangements of former times are
capable of rendering important service : a service, too, which
is the more needed, as the things indicated, in regard to these
future developments of the kingdom, are not only remote from
present observation, but also in many respects different from
what the ordinary course of events might lead us to expect. We
do not refer to the last issues of the Gospel dispensation, when
the concerns of time shall have become finally merged in the
224 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
unalterable results of eternity ; but to events, of which this earth
itself is still to be the theatre, in the closing periods of Messiah s
reign. This prospective ground is in many points overlaid with
controversy, and much concerning it must be regarded as matter
of doubtful disputation. Yet there are certain great landmarks,
which intelligent and sober-minded Christians can scarcely fail
to consider as fixed. It is not, for example, a more certain mark
of the Messiah who was to come, that He should be a despised
and rejected man, should pass through the deepest humiliation,
and, after a mighty struggle with evil, attain to the seat of
empire, than it is of the Messiah who has thus personally fought
and conquered, that He shall totally subdue all the adversaries
of His Church and kingdom, make His Church co-extensive
with the boundaries of the habitable globe, and exalt her mem
bers to the highest position of honour and blessing. For my
own part, I should as soon doubt that the first series of events
were the just object of expectation before, as the other have be
come since, the personal appearing of Christ ; and for breadth
and prominence of place in the prophetical portions, especially
of New Testament Scripture, this has all that could be desired in
its behalf. But how far still is the object from being realized ?
How unlikely, even, that it should ever be so, if we had nothing
more to found upon than calculations of reason, and the common
agencies of providence.
That the progress of society in knowledge and virtue should
gradually lead, at however distant a period, to the extirpation of
idolatry, the abolition of the grosser forms of superstition, and
a general refinement and civilisation of manners, requires no
great stretch of faith to believe. Such a result evidently lies
within the bounds of natural probability, if only sufficient time
were given to accomplish it. But, suppose it already done, how
much would still remain to be achieved, ere the glorious King
of Zion should have His promised ascendancy in the affairs of
men, and the spiritual ends for which He especially reigns should
be adequately secured ! This happy consummation might still
be found at an unapproachable distance, even when the other
had passed into a reality ; nor are there wanting signs in the
present condition of the world to awaken our fears lest such
may actually be the case. For in those countries where the
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 225
light of Divine truth and the arts of civilisation have become
more widely diffused, we see many things prevailing that are
utterly at variance with the purity and peace of the Gospel
numberless heresies in doctrine, disorders that seem to admit of
no healing, and practical corruptions which set at defiance all
authority and rule. In the very presence of the light of Heaven,
and amid the full play of Christian influences, the god of this
world still holds possession of by far the larger portion of man
kind; and innumerable obstacles present themselves on every
side against the universal diffusion and the complete ascendancy
of the pure principles of the Gospel of Christ. When such
things are taken into account, how hopeless seems the prospect
of a triumphant Church and a regenerated world ! of a Saviour
holding the undivided empire of all lands ! of a kingdom, in
which there is no longer anything to offend, and all appears-
replenished with life and blessing ! The partial triumphs which
Christianity is still gaining in single individuals and particular
districts, can go but a little way to assure us of so magnificent a
result. And it may well seem as if other influences than such
as are now in operation, would require to be put forth before
the expected good can be realized.
Something, no doubt, may be done to reassure the mind, by
looking back on the past history of Christianity, and contrasting
its present condition with the point from which it started. The
small mustard-seed has certainly sprung into a lofty tree,
stretching its luxuriant branches over many of the best regions
of the earth. See Christianity as it appeared in its Divine
Author, when He wandered about as a despised and helpless
individual, attended only by a little band of followers as despised
and helpless as Himself ; or again, when He was hanging on a
malefactor s cross, His very friends ashamed or terrified to avow
their connection with Him ; or even at another and more ad
vanced stage of its earthly history, when its still small, and now
resolute company of adherents, unfurled the banner of salvation,
with the fearful odds everywhere against them of hostile kings
and rulers, an ignorant and debased populace, a powerful and
interested priesthood, and a mighty host of superstitions, which
had struck their roots through the entire framework of society,
and had become venerable, as well as strong, by their antiquity.
VOL. I. P
226 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE..
See Christianity as it appeared then, and see it now standing
erect upon the ruins of the hierarchies and superstitions which
once threatened to extinguish it planted with honour in the
regions where, for a time, it was scarcely suffered to exist the
recognised religion of the most enlightened nations of the earth,
the delight and solace of the good, the study of the wise and
learned, at once the source and the bulwark of all that is most
pure, generous, free, and happy in modern civilisation. Com
paring thus the present with the past looking down from the
altitude that has been reached upon the low and unpromising
condition out of which Christianity at first arose, we are not
without considerable materials in the history of the Gospel itself,
for confirming our faith in the prospects which still wait for
their fulfilment. On this ground alone it may scarcely seem
more unlikely, that Christianity should proceed from the eleva
tion it has already won to the greatly more commanding attitude
it is yet destined to attain, than to have risen from such small
beginnings, and in the face of obstacles so many and so power
ful, to its present influential and honourable position.
But why not revert to a still earlier period in the Church s
history ? Why withhold from our wavering hearts the benefit
which they might derive from the form and pattern of divine
things, formerly exhibited in the parallel affairs of a typical and
earthly kingdom ? It was the Divine appointment concerning
Christ, that He should sit upon the throne of David, to order
and to establish it. In the higher sphere of God s administra
tion, and for the world at large, He was to do what had been
done through David in the lower and on the limited territory
of an earthly kingdom. The history of the one, therefore, may
justly be regarded as the shadow of the other. But it is still
only the earlier part of the history of David s kingdom which
has found its counterpart in the events of Gospel times. The
Shepherd of Israel has been anointed King over the heritage of
the Lord, and the impious efforts of His adversaries to disannul
the appointment have entirely miscarried. The formidable train
of evils which obstructed His way to the throne of government,
and which were directed with the profoundest cunning and
malice by him who, on account of sin, had been permitted to
become the prince of this world, have been all met and overcome
ITS PROPER PLACE AND IMPORTANCE. 227
with no other effect than to render manifest the Son s inde
feasible right to hold the sceptre of universal empire over the
affairs of men. Now, therefore, He reigns in the midst of His
enemies ; but He must also reign till these enemies themselves
are put down till the inheritance has been redeemed from all
evil, and universal peace, order, and blessing have been estab
lished.
Is not this also what the subsequent history of the earthly
kingdom fully warrants us to expect? It was long after
David s appointment to the throne, before his divine right to
reign was generally acknowledged ; and still longer before the
overthrow of the last combination of adversaries, and the ter
mination of the last train of evils, admitted of the kingdom
entering on its ultimate stage of settled peace and glory. The
affairs of David himself never wore a more discouraging arid
desperate aspect, than immediately before his great adversary
received the mortal blow which laid him in the dust. After
this, years had to elapse before the adverse parties in Israel
were even externally subdued, and brought to render a formal
acknowledgment to the Lord s anointed. When this point
again had been reached, what internal evils festered in the
kingdom, and what smouldering fires of enmity still burned !
Notwithstanding the vigorous efforts made to subdue these, we
see them at last bursting forth in the dreadful and unnatural
outbreak of Absalom s rebellion, which threatened for a time
to involve all in hopeless ruin and confusion. And with these
internal evils and insurrections, how many hostile encounters
had to be met from without ! some of which were so terrible,
that the very earth was felt, in a manner, to shake under the
stroke (Ps. lx.). Yet all at length yielded ; and partly by the
prowess of faith, partly by the remarkable turns given to events
in providence, the kingdom did reach a position of unexampled
prosperity, peace, and blessing. But in all this we have the
development of a typical dispensation, bringing the assurance,
that the same position shall in due time be reached in the
higher sphere and nobler concerns of Messiah s kingdom. The
same determinate counsel and foreknowledge, the same living
energy, the same overruling Providence, is equally competent
now, as it is alike pledged, to secure a corresponding result.
228 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
And if the people of God have but discernment to read aright
the history of the past, and faith and patience to fulfil their
appointed task, they will find that they have no need to despair
of a successful issue, but every reason to hope that judgment
shall at length be brought forth into victory.
This one illustration may meanwhile be sufficient to show
(others will afterwards present themselves), how valuable an
handmaid to the unfulfilled prophecies of Scripture may be
found in a correct acquaintance with its Typology. Its pro
vince does not, indeed, consist in definitely marking out before
hand the particular agents and transactions that are to fill up
the page of the eventful future. It performs the service which
in this respect it is fitted to accomplish, when it enables us to
obtain some insight not into the what, or the when, or the in
struments by ivliicli but rather into the how and the wherefore
of the future, when it instructs us respecting the nature of
the principles that must prevail, and the general lines of deal
ing that shall be adopted, in conducting the affairs of Messiah s
kingdom to their destined results. The future here is mirrored
in the past ; and the thing that hath been, is, in all its essential
features, the same that shall be.
BOOK SECOND,
THE DISPENSATION OF PRIMEVAL AND PATRIARCHAL TIMES.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
HITHERTO we have been occupied chiefly with an investigation
of principles. It was necessary, in the first instance, to have
these ascertained and settled, before we could apply, with any
prospect of success, to the particular consideration of the typical
materials of Old Testament Scripture. And in now entering
on this, the more practical, as it is also the more varied and
extensive, branch of our subject, it is proper to indicate at the
outset the general features of the arrangement we propose to
adopt, and notice certain landmarks of a more prominent kind
that ought to guide the course of our inquiries.
1. As all that was really typical formed part of an existing
dispensation, and stood related to a religious worship, our pri
mary divisions must connect themselves with the Divine dispen
sations. These dispensations were undoubtedly based on the
same fundamental truths and principles. But they were also
marked by certain characteristic differences, adapting them to
the precise circumstances of the Church and the world at the
time of their introduction. It is from these, therefore, we must
take our starting-points ; and in these also should find the
natural order and succession of the topics which must pass
under our consideration. In doing so we shall naturally look,
first, to the fundamental facts on which the dispensation is
based; then to the religious symbols in which its lessons and
hopes were embodied ; and finally, to the future and subsidiary
transactions which afterwards carried forward and matured the
instruction.
230 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
2. In the whole compass of sacred history we find only three
grand eras that can properly be regarded as the formative epochs
of distinct religious dispensations. For, according to the prin
ciples already set forth (in Ch. IV.), the things directly belonging
to creation, however they may have to be taken into account as
presupposed and referred to in what followed, still do not here
come into consideration as a distinct class, and calling for inde
pendent treatment. The three eras, then, are those of the fall, of
the redemption from Egypt, and of the appearance and work of
Christ, as they are usually designated ; though they might be
more fitly described, the first as the entrance of faith and hope
for fallen man, the second as the giving of the law, and the third
as the revelation of the Gospel. For it was not properly the
fall, but the new state and constitution of things brought in
after it, that, in a religious point of view, forms the first com
mencement of the world s history. Neither is it the redemption
from Egypt, considered by itself, but this in connection with
the giving of the law, which was its immediate aim and object,
that forms the great characteristic of the second stage, as the
coming of grace and truth by Jesus Christ does of the third.
Between the first and second of these eras two very important
events intervened the deluge and the call of Abraham both
alike forming prominent breaks in the history of the period.
Hence, not unfrequently, the antediluvian is distinguished from
the patriarchal Church, and the Church as it existed before,
from the Church as it stood after, the call of Abraham. But
important as these events were, in the order of God s providential
arrangements, they mark no material alteration in the constitu
tional basis, or even formal aspect, of the religion then established.
As regards the institutions of worship, properly so called, Abra
ham and his descendants appear to have been much on a footing
with those who lived before the flood ; and therefore not primary
and fundamental, but only subsidiary, elements of instruction
could be evolved by means of the events referred to. The same
may also be said of another great event, which formed a similar
break during the currency of the second period the Babylonish
exile and return. This occupies a very prominent place in
Scripture, whether we look to the historical record of the event
or to the announcements made beforehand concerning it in
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 231
prophecy. Yet it introduced no essential change into the
spiritual relations of the Church, nor altered in any respect the
institutions of her symbolical worship. The restored temple was
built at once on the site and after the pattern of that which
had been laid in ruins by the Chaldeans ; and nothing more was
aimed at by the immediate agents in the work of restoration,
than the re-establishment of the rites and services enjoined by
Moses. Omitting, therefore, the Gospel dispensation, as the
antitypical, there only remain for the commencement of the
earlier dispensations, in which the typical is to be sought, the
two epochs already mentioned those of Adam and Moses.
3. It is not simply the fact, however, of these successive dis
pensations which is of importance for our present inquiry. Still
more depends for a well-grounded and satisfactory exhibition of
Divine truth as connected with them, upon a correct view of
their mutual and interdependent relation to each other ; the re
lation not merely of the Mosaic to the Christian, but also of the
Patriarchal to the Mosaic. For as the revelation of law laid
the foundation of a religious state which, under the moulding
influence of providential arrangements and prophetic gifts, de
veloped and grew till it had assumed many of the characteristic
features of the Gospel ; so the original constitution of grace
settled with Adam after the fall, comparatively vague and indis
tinct at first, gradually became more definite and exact, and, in
the form of heaven-derived or time-honoured institutions, ex
hibited the germ of much that was afterwards established as law.
In the primeval period nothing wears a properly legal aspect ;
and it has been one of the current mistakes, especially in this
country, of theological writers, a source of endless controversy
and arbitrary explanations, to seek there for law in the direct
and obtrusive, when, as yet, the order of the Divine plan ad
mitted of its existing only in the latent form. We read of
promise and threatening, of acts and dealings of God, pregnant
with spiritual light and moral obligation, meeting from the very
first the wants and circumstances of fallen man ; but of express
and positive enactments there is no trace. Some of the grounds
and reasons of this will be adverted to in the immediately follow
ing chapters. At present we simply notice the fact, as one of
the points necessary to be kept in view for giving a right direc-
232 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
tion to the course of inquiry before us. Yet, on the other hand,
while in the commencing period of the Church s history we find
nothing that bears the rigid and authoritative form of law, we
find on every hand the foundations of law ; and these gradually
enlarging and widening, and sometimes even assuming a dis
tinctly legal aspect, before the patriarchal dispensation closed.
So that when the properly legal period came, the materials,
to a considerable extent, were already in existence, and only
needed to be woven and consolidated into a compact system of
truth and duty. It is enough to instance, in proof of what has
been stated, the case of the Sabbath, not formally imposed,
though divinely instituted from the first the rite of piacular
sacrifice, very similar (as we shall show) as to its original insti
tution the division of animals into clean and unclean the
consecration of the tenth to God the sacredness of blood the
Levirate usage the ordinance of circumcision. The whole of
these had their foundations laid, partly in the procedure of God,
partly in the consciences of men, before the law entered ; and
in regard to some of them the law s prescriptions might be said
to be anticipated, while still the patriarchal age was in progress.
As the period of law approached, there was also a visible ap
proach to its distinctive characteristics. And, without regard
had to the formal difference yet gradual approximation of the
two periods, we can as little hope to present a solid and satisfac
tory view of the progressive development of the Divine plan, as
if we should overlook either their fundamental agreement with
each other, or their common relation to the full manifestation of
grace and truth in the kingdom of Christ. It must be borne in
mind, that the Law the intermediate point between the fall
and redemption had its preparation as well as the Gospel.
4. In regard to the mode of investigation to be pursued re
specting particular types, as the first place is due to those which
belonged to the institutions of religion, so our first care must be,
according to the principles already established, to ascertain the
views and impressions which, as parts of an existing religion,
they were fitted to awaken in the ancient worshipper. It may,
of course, be impossible to say, in any particular case, that such
views and impressions were actually derived from them, with as
much precision and defiriiteness as may appear in our descrip-
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 233
tion ; for we cannot be sure that the requisite amount of thought
and consideration was actually addressed to the subject. But
due care should be taken in this respect, not to make the typical
symbols arid transactions indicative of more than what may, with
ordinary degrees of light and grace, have been learned from
them by men of faith in Old Testament times. It is not, how
ever, to be forgotten that, in their peculiar circumstances, much
greater insight was attainable through such a medium, than it
is quite easy for us now to realize. At first, believers were
largely dependent upon it for their knowledge of Divine truth ;
it was their chief talent, and would hence be cultivated with
especial care. Even afterwards, when the sources of informa
tion were somewhat increased, the disposition and capacity to
learn by means of symbolical acts and institutions, would be
materially aided by that mode of contemplation which has been
wont to distinguish the inhabitants of the East. This proceeds
(to use the language of Bahr) " on the ground of an inseparable
connection subsisting between the spiritual and the bodily, the
ideal and the real, the seen and the unseen. According to it,
the whole actual world is nothing but the manifestation of the
o
ideal one ; the entire creation is not only a production, but, at
the same time, also an evidence and a revelation of Godhead.
Nothing real is merely dead matter, but is the form and body of
something ideal ; so that the whole world, even to its very stones,
appears instinct with life, and on that account especially becomes
a revelation of Deity, whose distinguishing characteristic it is to
have life in Himself. Such a mode of viewing things in nature
may be called emphatically the religious one ; for it contem
plates the world as a great sanctuary, the individual parts of
which are so many marks, words, and letters of a grand revela
tion-book of Godhead, in which God speaks and imparts infor
mation respecting Himself. If, therefore, that which is seen and
felt was generally regarded by men as the immediate impression
of that which is unseen, a speech and revelation of the invisible
Godhead to them, it necessarily follows, that if they were to
have unfolded to them a conception of His nature, and to have
a representation given them of what His worship properly con
sists in, the same language would require to be used which God
spake with them ; the same means of representation would need
234 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to be employed which God Himself had sanctioned the sensible,
the visible, the external." 1
The conclusion here drawn appears to go somewhat farther
than the premises fairly warrant. If the learned author had
merely said that there was a propriety or fitness in employing
the same means of outward representation, as they fell in with
the prevailing cast of thought in those among whom they were
instituted, and were thus wisely adapted to the end in view, we
should have entirely concurred in the statement. But that such
persons absolutely required to be addressed by means of a
symbolical language in matters of religion could scarcely be ad
mitted, without conceding that they were incapable of handling
another and more spiritual one, and that consequently a religion
of symbols must have held perpetual ascendancy in the East.
Besides, it may well be questioned, whether this "peculiarly
religious mode of viewing things," as it is called, was not, to a
considerable extent, the result of a symbolical religion already
established, rather than the originating cause of such a religion.
At all events, the real necessity for the preponderating carnality
and outwardness of the earlier dispensations was of a different
kind. It arose from the very nature of the institutions belong
ing to them, as temporary substitutes for the better and the
more spiritual things of the Gospel; rendering it necessary that
symbols should then hold the place of the coming reality. It is
the capital error of Bahr s system to give to the symbolical
in religion a place higher than that which properly belongs
to it ; and so to assimilate too nearly the Old and the New to
represent the symbolical religion of the Old Testament as less
imperfect than it really was, and inversely to convert the great
est reality of the New Testament the atoning death of Christ
into a merely symbolical representation of the placability of
Heaven to the penitent.
But with this partial exception to the sentiments expressed in
the quotation above given, there can be no doubt that the mode
of contemplation and insight there described has remarkably
distinguished the inhabitants of the East, and that it must have
peculiarly fitted them for the intelligent use of a symbolical
worship. They could give life and significance, in a manner we
1 Bahr s Symbolik, B. I., p. 24.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 235
can but imperfectly understand, to the outward and corporeal
emblems through which their converse with God was chiefly
carried on. .To reason from our own case to theirs would be to
judge by a very false criterion. Accustomed from our earliest
years to oral and written discourse, as the medium through which
we receive our knowledge of Divine truth, and express the feel
ings it awakens in our bosom, we have some difficulty in con
ceiving how any definite ideas could be conveyed on the one side
or the other, where that was so sparingly employed as the means
of communication. But the "grey fathers of the world" were
placed in other circumstances, having from their childhood been
trained to the use of symbolical institutions as the most expres
sive and appropriate channels of Divine communion. So that
the native tendency first, and then the habitual use strengthen
ing and improving the tendency, must have rendered them
adepts, as compared with Christian communities now, in per
ceiving the significance and employing the instrumentality of
religious symbols.
5. When the symbolical institutions and services of former
times shall have been explained in the manner now indicated,
the next step will be to consider in detail the import and bearing
of the typical transactions which took place during the continu
ance of each dispensation. In doing this, care will require, in
the first instance, to be taken, that the proper place be assigned
them as intended only to exhibit ideas subsidiary to those em
bodied in the religion itself. And as in reading the typical
symbols, so in reading the typical transactions connected with
them, we must make the views and impressions they were fitted
to convey to those whom they immediately respected, concerning
the character and purposes of God, the ground and measure of
that higher bearing which they carried to the coming events of
the Gospel. Nor are we here again to overlook that religious
tendency and habit of mind which has been noticed as a general
characteristic of the inhabitants of the East; for they would
certainly be disposed to do with the acts of providence as with
the works of creation would contemplate them as manifesta
tions of Godhead, or revelations in the world of sense of what
was thought and felt in the higher world of spirit. Besides, it is
to be borne in mind, that the historical transactions referred to
236 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
were all special acts of Providence. While they formed part of
the current events of history, they were, at the same time, so
singularly planned arid adjusted, that the persons immediately
concerned in them could scarcely overlook either their direct
appointment by God, or their intimate connection with His plans
and purposes of grace. It is the hand of God Himself that ever
appears to be directing the transactions of Old Testament history.
And the acts in which He more peculiarly discovers Himself
being the operations of One whose grand object, from the period
of the fall, was the foiling of the tempter and the raising up of
a seed of blessing, they could scarcely fail to be regarded by
intelligent and pious minds as standing in a certain relation to
this centre-point of the Divine economy. In proportion as the
people of God had faith to " wait for the consolation of Israel,"
they would also have discernment to read, with a view to the
better things to come, the disclosures of His mind and will,
which were interwoven with the history of His operations.
It is in this way we are chiefly to account for God s frequent
appearance on the stage of patriarchal history, and His more
direct personal agency in the affairs of His chosen people. The
things that happened to them could not otherwise have accom
plished the great ends of their appointment ; for through these
God was continually making revelation of Himself, and bringing
those who stood nearest to Him to a fuller acquaintance with
His character as the God of life and blessing. It was therefore
of essential moment to the object in view, that His people should
be able without hesitation to regard them as indications of His
mind : that they should not merely consider them as His, in the
general sense in which it may be said that "God is in history;"
but His also in the more definite and peculiar sense of conveying
specific and progressive discoveries of the Divine administration.
Plow could they have been recognised as such, unless the finger
of God had, in some form, laid its distinctive impress upon them?
Taking into account, therefore, all the peculiarities belonging to
the typical facts of Old Testament history the close relation
in which they commonly stood to the rites and institutions of a
religion of hope the evident manner in which many of them
bore upon them the interposition of God, and the place occupied
by others in the announcements of prophecy, they had quite
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 237
enough to distinguish them from the more general events of
providence, and were perfectly capable of ministering to the
faith and the just expectations of the people of God.
6. We simply note farther, that when passing under review
acts and institutions of God which stretch through successive
ages and dispensations, there will necessarily recur, under some
what different forms, substantially the same exhibitions of Divine
truth. It was unavoidable but that all the more fundamental
ideas of religion, and the greater obligations connected with it,
should be the subject of many an ordinance in worship, and
many a transaction in providence. The briefest mode of treat
ment, as it would naturally involve fewest repetitions, would be
to classify, first the primary heads of doctrine and duty, and then
arrange under them the successive exhibitions given of each in
the future enactments and dealings of God, without adhering
rigidly to the period of their appearance. This plan was par
tially followed in our first edition, but was found impracticable
as a whole. We deem it necessary to keep by the historical
order, though it may be occasionally attended with the disad
vantage of having the same truths brought anew before us.
For thus alone can we mark aright the course of development,
which in a work of this nature is too important an element to be
sacrificed to the fear of at times trenching on ground that may
have been partially trodden before.
CHAPTER FIRST.
THE DIVINE TRUTHS EMBODIED IN THE HISTORICAL TRANS
ACTIONS ON WHICH THE FIRST SYMBOLICAL RELIGION FOR
FALLEN MAN WAS BASED.
ASSUMING our proper starting-point here to be the fall of man
from his primeval state of integrity and bliss, since it was that
which opened the way for the manifestation of grace and the
hope of redemption, we are still not to throw into abeyance
whatever belonged to the primeval state itself. For, while all
was sadly changed by the unhappy event which had taken place,
all was not absolutely lost. The knowledge which our first
parents had of the work of creation, and of the character of
God as therein displayed, could not altogether vanish from their
minds ; it had formed the groundwork of that adoration of God
and fellowship with Him which constituted the religion of
Paradise ; and even after Paradise was lost, they must still have
derived from it, and preserved in the depths of their spiritual
being, some of the more fundamental elements of truth and
duty. That all things were made by God, after the manner
described in the commencing chapters of Genesis (whether in
the precise terms there used or not) ; that as they came from
His hand they were, one and all, very good ; that the work of
creation in six days was succeeded by a day of peculiar sacred-
ness and rest ; that man himself was made on the sixth day, as
the crowning-point of creation made in the image of God, and
as such had all here below placed in a relation of subservience
to him, while, just because he bore God s image, he was bound
to use all in obedience to the will of God, and for the glory of
His name ; these, and various other collateral points of know
ledge, which must have been familiar to man before the fall,
since otherwise he should have been ignorant alike of his proper
place and calling in creation, could not fail to abide also with
him after it. And since it pleased God not to destroy His
TRUTHS IN HISTORICAL TRANSACTIONS. 239
fallen creature, but to perpetuate his existence on earth, and
amid mingled experiences of good and evil to animate him with
the prospect of ultimate recovery, it was to be understood of
itself that all creation privileges and gifts stood as at first con
ferred, except in so far as they might be expressly recalled, or
through the altered constitution of things placed in another
relation to man than they originally held. Paradise itself, with
its ample heritage of life and blessing, had ceased to be to him
what it had been : though it was there still, and spoke as before
of good, it spoke otherwise to him. But the mutual relation of
the fallen pair themselves, the one to the other ; their common
relation to the world around them, with its living creatures and
manifold productions ; their farther and higher relation to God,
as still bearing, though now sadly marred, His divine image, and
called to reflect it by a becoming imitation of His example : these
all remained in principle, only modified in action by the workings
of sin on man s part, and on God s by the introduction of an
economy of grace. Speaking generally, one may say, that in so
far as a withdrawal took place of what had been originally
given, or nature s heritage of good was supplanted by experi
ences of evil, there was the bringing home to man s bosom of
the salutary truths and principles which required to enter as
fundamental conditions into any religion which could be adapted
to him as fallen. But in so far as the old things were allowed
to remain, under altered relations or with other accompaniments
than before, there was a linking of the past to the future, of
creation to redemption turning the one into a pledge, or re
quiring it to be understood as an image of a corresponding,
though higher, good yet to be realized.
The justice of these remarks will more distinctly appear
when we come to the consideration of the particulars. In look
ing at these, however, with a view to estimate aright their re
ligious aspect and bearing, we must keep in mind what has
already been indicated respecting the position of our first
parents, as the recent possessors of a holy nature, and the occu
pants of an elevated moral condition. For, while they had
miserably fallen and become guilty before God, they had not
sunk into total ignorance and perversion ; and so were not dealt
with by means of rigid enactments and a minutely prescribed
240 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
directory of service, but rather with such consideration and
regard as implied a recognition in them of a measure of that
capacity and intelligence which had so lately been conversant
with all that is pure and good. Possessing in God s works and
ways, along with the records of their own painful experience,
the materials of knowing what concerning Him they should
believe and do, they were left by the help of these, and with
such grace as might now be expected by the penitent and be
lieving, to discover the path of life and blessing. It was only
as time proceeded, and dark events in providence betrayed the
deep-seated and virulent corruption which had entered into
humanity, that other and more stringent measures were resorted
to, as well to inculcate lessons of necessary instruction, as to
enforce a becoming obedience. Meanwhile, however, and look
ing to the conspicuous and intentional absence of these, we have
to inquire what of divine truth and principle might be involved,
first in the facts connected with the fall, then with the symbols
and institutions of worship appointed to the fallen indicating,
as we proceed, the typical bearing which any of them might
present to the future things of redemption. To the former of
these, as the first in order, we now direct our attention.
1. What, in such an enumeration, is obviously entitled to
rank first, is the doctrine of human guilt and corruption.
From the moment of their transgression, our first parents
knew that their relation to God had become sadly altered. The
calm of their once peaceful bosoms was instantly agitated and
disturbed by tormenting fears of judgment. Nor did these
prove to be groundless alarms ; they were the forerunners of a
curse which was soon thundered in their ears by the voice of
God, and written out in their exiled and blighted condition.
It was impossible for them to escape the conviction, that they
were no longer in the sight of God very good. And as their
posterity grew, and one generation sprung up after another,
the story of the lost heritage of blessing (no doubt perpetually
repeated), and the still continued exclusion from the hallowed
region of life, must have served to keep up the impression that
sin had wholly corrupted the nature and marred the inherit
ance of man.
Evidences were not long wanting to show, that sin in the
TRUTHS IN HISTORICAL TRANSACTIONS. 241
first pair was evil in the root, which must, more or less, com
municate itself to every branch of the human family. In the
first-born of the family it sprang at once into an ill-omened
maturity, as if to give warning of the disastrous results that
might be expected in the future history of mankind. And con
stantly as the well-spring of life flowed on, the stream of human
depravity swelled into a deeper and broader flood. There were
things in God s earlier procedure that were naturally fitted to
check its working, and repress its growth especially the mild
forbearance and paternal kindness with which He treated the
first race of transgressors the wonderful longevity granted
to them the space left for repentance even to the greatest
sinners, while still sufficient means were employed to convince
them of their guilt and danger, all seeming to betoken the
tender solicitude of a father yearning over his infant offspring,
and restraining for a season the curse that now rested on their
condition, if so be they might be won to His love and service.
But it was the evil, not the good, in man s nature, which took
advantage of this benign treatment on the part of God, to ripen
into strength and fruitfulness. And, ere long, the very good
ness of God found it needful to interpose, and relieve the earth
of the mass of violence and corruption which, as in designed
contrast to the benignity of Heaven, had come to usurp posses
sion of the world. So that, looking simply to the broad facts
of history, the doctrine of human guilt and depravity stands
forth with a melancholy prominence and particularity which
could leave no doubt concerning it upon thoughtful minds.
2. Another doctrine, which the facts of primeval history
rendered it equally impossible for thoughtful minds to gainsay
or overlook, is the righteousness of God s character and govern
ment.
For, that mankind should have been expelled from the
region of life, and made subject to a curse which doomed them
to sorrow and trouble, disease and death, in consequence of
their violation of a single command of Heaven, was a proof
patent to all, and memorable in the annals of the world, that
everything in the Divine government is subordinate to the
principles of rectitude. "There was in it," as was strikingly
and beautifully said by Irving, " a most sublime act of holiness.
VOL, I. Q
242 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
God, after making Adam a creature for an image and likeness
of Himself, did resolve him into vile dust through viler corrup
tion, when once he had sinned ; proving that one act of sin was,
in God s sight, of far more account than a whole world teeming
with beautiful and blessed life, which He would rather send
headlong into death than suffer one sin of His creature to go
unpunished. And though creation s teeming fountain might
flow on ever so long, still the flowing waters of created life
must ever empty themselves into the gulph of death. This is a
most sublime exaltation of the moral above the material, show
ing that all material beauty and blessedness of life is but, as
it were, the clothing of one good thought, which, if it become
evil, straightway all departs like the shadow of a dream." Who
could seriously reflect on this on the good that was lost, and
the inheritance of evil that came in its place without being
solemnly impressed with the conviction, that the sceptre of God s
government is a sceptre of righteousness, and that blessing might
be expected under it only by such as love righteousness and
hate iniquity ?
3. But if nothing more had been manifested of God in the
facts of primeval history than this had He appeared only as a
righteous judge executing deserved condemnation on the guilty,
Adam and his fallen offspring might have been appalled and
terrified before Him, but they could not have ventured to ap
proach Him with acts of worship. We notice, therefore, as
another truth brought out in connection with the circumstances
of the fall, and an essentially new feature in the Divine charac
ter, the exhibition of grace which was then given on the part of
God to the fallen. That everything was not subjected to in
stantaneous and overwhelming destruction, was itself a proof
of the introduction of a principle of grace into the Divine
administration. The mere respite of the sentence of death
(which, if justice alone had prevailed, must have been executed
on the very day of transgression), and the establishment of an
order of things which still contained many tokens of Divine
goodness, gave evidence of thoughts of mercy and loving-
kindness in God toward man. But as no vague intimations,
or even probable conclusions of reason, from the general course
of Providence, could be sufficient to re-assure the heart on such
TRUTHS IN HISTORICAL TRANSACTIONS. 243
a matter as this, an explicit assurance was given, that " the seed
of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent," which,
however dimly understood at first, could not fail even then to
light up the conviction in the sinful heart, that it was the pur
pose of God to aid man in obtaining a recovery from the ruin
of the fall. The serpent had been the ostensible occasion and
instrument of the fall, the visible and living incarnation of
the evil power which betrayed man to sell his birthright of life
and blessing. And that this power should be destined to be not
only successfully withstood, but bruised in the very head by the
offspring of her over whom he had so easily prevailed, clearly
bespoke the intention of God to defeat the malice of the tempter,
and secure the final triumph of the lost.
But this, if done at all, must evidently be done in a way of
grace. All natural good had been forfeited by the fall, and
death the utter destruction of life and blessing had become
the common doom of humanity. Whatever inheritance, there
fore, of good, or whatever opportunity of acquiring it, might be
again presented, could be traced to no other source than the
Divine beneficence freely granting what could never have been
claimed on the ground of merit. And as the recovery promised
necessarily implied a victory over the might and malice of the
tempter, to be won by the very victims of his artifice, how other
wise could this be achieved than through the special interposi
tion and grace of the Most High ? Manhood in Adam and Eve,
with every advantage on its side of a natural kind, had proved
unable to stand before the enemy, to the extent of keeping the
easiest possible command, and retaining possession of an inherit
ance already conferred. How greatly more unable must it
have felt itself, if left unaided and alone, to work up against the
evil, and destroy the destroyer ! In such a case, hope could
have found no solid footing to rest upon for the fulfilment of
the promise, excepting what it descried in the gracious intentions
and implied aid of the Promiser. And when it appeared, as the
history of the world advanced, how the evil continued to take
root and grow, so as even for a time to threaten the extermina
tion of the good, the impression must have deepened in the
minds of the better portion of mankind, that the promised
restoration must come through the intervention of Divine power
244 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
and goodness, that the saved must owe their salvation to the
grace of God.
4. Thus far the earliest inhabitants of the world might
readily go in learning the truth of God, by simply looking to
the broad and palpable facts of history. And without supposing
them to have possessed any extraordinary reach of discernment,
they might surely be conceived capable of taking one step more
respecting the accomplishment of that salvation or recovery which
was now the object of their desire and expectation. Adam saw
and it must have been one of the most painful reflections
which forced itself on his mind, and one, too, which subsequent
events came, not to relieve, but rather to embitter and aggravate
he saw how his fall carried in its bosom the fall of humanity ;
that the nature which in him had become stricken with pollution
and death, went down thus degenerate and corrupt to all his
posterity. It was plain, therefore, that the original constitution
of things was based on a principle of headship, in virtue of which
the condition of the entire race was made dependent on that of
its common parent. And the thought was not far to seek, that
the same constitution might somehow have place in connection
with the work of recovery. Indeed, it seems impossible to under
stand how, excepting through such a principle, any distinct hope
could be cherished of the attainment of salvation. By the one
act of Adam s disobedience, he and his posterity together were
banished from the region of pure and blessed life, and made
subject to the law of sin and death. Whence, in such a case,
could deliverance come ? How could it so much as be conceived
possible, to re-open the way of life, and place the restored in
heritance of good on a secure and satisfactory footing, except
through some second head of humanity supernaturally qualified
for the undertaking ? A fallen head could give birth only to a
fallen offspring so the righteousness of Heaven had decreed ;
and the prospect of rising again to the possession of immortal
life and blessing, seemed, by its very announcement, to call for
the institution of another head, unfallen and yet human, through
whom the prospect might be realized. Thus only could the
Divine government retain its uniformity of principle in the
altered circumstances that had occurred ; and thus only might
it seem possible to have the end it proposed accomplished.
TRUTHS IN HISTORICAL TRANSACTIONS. 245
We do not suppose that the consideration of this principle of
headship, as exhibited in the case of Adam and his posterity,
could, of itself, have enabled those who lived immediately sub
sequent to the fall, to obtain very clear or definite views in
regard to the mode of its application in the working out of
redemption. We merely suppose, that, in the circumstances of
the case, there was enough to suggest to intelligent and discern
ing minds that it should in some way have a place. But the
full understanding of the principle, and of the close harmony it
establishes between the fall and redemption, as to the descending
curse of the one and the distributive grace and glory of the
other, can be perceived only by us, whose privilege it is to look
from the end of the world to its beginnings, and to trace the
first dawn of the Gospel to the effulgence of its meridian glory.
Even the Jewish Rabbins, who were far from occupying the
vantage-ground we have reached, could yet discern some com
mon ground between the heritage of evil derived from Adam,
and the good to be effected by Messiah. " The secret of Adam,"
one of them remarks, "is the secret of the Messiah;" and
another, " As the first man was the one that sinned, so shall the
Messiah be the one to do sin away." 1 They recognised in Adam
and Christ the two heads of humanity, with whom all mankind
must be associated for evil or for good. On surer grounds, how
ever, than lay within the ken of their apprehension, we know
that Adam was in this respect " the type of Him that was to
come." 2 (Rom. v. 14.) But in this respect alone ; for in all
other points we have to think of differences, not of resemblances.
1 See Tholuck Comm. on Rom. v. 1 2.
2 It is literally, "type of the future one" (TWO; rov ^A^OI/TO?), the
other or second Adam : not, however, generally, or in his creation state
simply, for of that the Apostle is not speaking, but of his relation to an off
spring whose case was involved in his own. The sentiment of the Apostle,
taken in its proper connection, was quite correctly given by Theophylact,
" For as the old Adam rendered all subject to his own fall, though they had
not fallen, so Christ justified all, though they did nothing worthy of justifi
cation." The Apostle s authority, therefore, cannot be fairly quoted for any
thing more than we have stated in the text ; and to isolate his expression,
as some do, from the subject immediately discoursed of, and turn it into a
general statement respecting a prefiguration of the second Adam irrespective
of the fall in the first, is to bring in the Apostle as a witness to a point not
distinctly before him.
246 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE,
The principle that belongs to them in common, stands simply
in the relation they alike hold, the one to a fallen, the other to
a restored offspring. The natural seed of Adam are dealt with
as one with himself, first in transgression, and then in death, the
wages of transgression. And, in like manner, the spiritual seed
of Christ are dealt with as one with Him, first in the consum
mate righteousness He brought in, and then in the eternal life,
which is its appointed recompense of blessing. u As in Adam
all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive " all, namely, who
stand connected with Christ in the economy of grace, as they
do with Adam in the economy of nature. How could this be,
but by the sin of Adam being regarded as the sin of humanity,
and the righteousness of Christ as the property of those who by
faith rest upon His name I Hence, in the fifth chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, along with the facts which in the two
cases attest the doctrine of headship, we find the parallel ex
tended, so as to include also the respective grounds out of which
they spring : " As by the offence of one, judgment came upon
all men to condemnation, ; even so by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For
as by one man s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
These statements of the Apostle are no more than an expla
nation of the facts of the case by connecting them with the moral
government of God ; and it is not in the power of human reason
to give either a satisfactory view of his meaning, or a rational
account of the facts themselves, on any other ground than this
principle of headship. It has also many analogies in the con
stitution of nature and the history of providence to support it.
And though, like every other peculiar doctrine of the Gospel, it
will always prove a stone of stumbling to the natural man, it will
never fail to impart peace and comfort to the child of faith.
Some degree of this he will derive from it, even by contemplat
ing it in its darkest side by looking to the inheritance of evil
which it has been the occasion of transmitting from Adam to the
whole human race. For, humbling as is the light in which it
presents the natural condition of man, it still serves to keep the
soul possessed of just and elevated views of the goodness of God.
That all are naturally smitten with the leprosy of a sore disease,
TRUTHS IN HISTORICAL TRANSACTIONS. 247
is matter of painful experience, and cannot be denied without
setting aside the plainest lessons of history. But how much
deeper must have been the pain which the thought of this
awakened, and how unspeakably more pregnant should it have
appeared with fear and anxiety for the future, if the evil could
have been traced to the operation of God, and had existed as an
original and inherent element in the state and constitution of
man ! It was a great relief to the wretched bosom of the pro
digal, and was all, indeed, that remained to keep him from the
blackness of despair, to know that it was not his father who
sent him forth into the condition of a swine-herd, and bade him
satisfy his hunger with the husks on which they fed ; a truly
consolatory thought, that these husks and that wretchedness were
not emblems of his father. And can it be less comforting for
the thoughtful mind, when awakening to the sad heritage of sin
and death, under which humanity lies burdened, to know that
this ascends no higher than the first parent of the human family,
and that, as originally settled by God, the condition of mankind
was in all respects " very good ? " The evil is thus seen to have
been not essential, but incidental ; a root of man s planting, not
of God s ; an intrusion into Heaven s workmanship, which
Heaven may again drive out.
But a much stronger consolation is yielded by the considera
tion of this principle of headship, when it is viewed in connection
with the second Adam ; since it then assumes the happier aspect
of the ground-floor of redemption the actual, and, as far as we
can perceive, the only possible foundation on which a plan of
complete recovery could have been formed. Excepting in con
nection with this principle, we cannot imagine how a remedial
scheme could have been devised, that should have been in any
measure adequate to the necessities of the case. Taken indivi
dually and apart, no man could have redeemed either his own
soul or the soul of a brother ; he could not in a single case have
recovered the lost good, far less have kept it in perpetuity if it
had been recovered : and either Divine justice must have fore
gone its claims, or each transgressor must have sunk under the
weight of his own guilt and helplessness. But by means of the
principle which admits of an entire offspring having the root of
its condition and the ground of its destiny in a common head, a
248 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
door stood open in the Divine administration for a plan of re
covery co-extensive (hypothetically) with the work of ruin. And
unless we could have assured ourselves of an absolute and con
tinued freedom from sin (which even angelic natures could not
do), we may well reconcile ourselves to such a principle in the
Divine government as that which, for one man s transgression,
has made us partakers of a fallen condition, since in that very
principle we perceive the one channel, through which access
could he found for those who have fallen, to the peace and
safety of a restored condition.
He must know nothing aright of sin or salvation, who is in
capable of finding comfort in this view of the subject. And yet
there is a ground of comfort higher still, arising from the pro
spect it secures for believers of a condition better and safer than
what was originally possessed by man before the fall. For the
second Adam, who, as the new head of humanity, gives the tone
and character to all that belongs to the kingdom of God, is in-
O O
comparably greater than the first, and has received for Himself
and His redeemed an inheritance corresponding to His personal
worth and dignity. So that if the principle of which we speak
appears, in the first instance, like a depressing load weighing
humanity down to the very brink of perdition, it becomes at length
a divine lever to raise it to a height far beyond what it originally
occupied, or could otherwise have had any prospect of reaching.
As the Apostle graphically describes in his first Epistle to the
Corinthians, " The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second
man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also
that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." What
an elevating prospect ! destined to be conformed to the image of
the Son of God, and in consequence to share with Him in the
life, the blessedness, and the glory which He inherits in the
kingdom of the Father ! Coupling, then, the end of the Divine
plan with the beginning, and entering with childlike simplicity
into its arrangements, we find that the principle of headship, on
which the whole hinges for evil and for good, is really fraught
with the richest beneficence, and should call forth our admira
tion of the manifold wisdom and goodness of God ; for through
TRUTHS IN HISTORICAL TRANSACTIONS. 249
this an avenue has been laid open for us into the realms above,
and our natures have become linked in fellowship of good with
what is best and highest in the universe.
It thus appears that there were four fundamental principles
or ideas, which the historical transactions connected with the fall
served strikingly to exhibit, and which must have been incor
porated as primary elements with the religion then introduced.
1. The doctrine of human guilt and depravity ; 2. Of the right
eousness of God s character and government ; 3. Of grace in
God as necessary to open, and actually opening, the door of hope
for the fallen ; 4. And, finally, of a principle of headship, by
which the offspring of a common parent were associated in a
common ruin, and by which again, under a new and better con
stitution, the heirs of blessing might be associated in a common
restoration. In these elementary principles, however, we have
rather the basis of the patriarchal religion, than the religion
itself. For this, we must look to the symbols and institutions of
worship. And, as far as appears from the records of that early
time, the materials out of which these had at first to be fashioned
were : The position assigned to man in respect to the tree of life,
the placing before him of the cherubim and the flaming sword
at the east of Eden, the covering of his guilt by the sacrifice of
animal life, and his still subsisting relation to the day of rest
originally hallowed and blessed by God. To this last may be
added the marriage-relationship ; for here also the general
principle holds, that no formal change was introduced after the
fall, and what was done at the first was virtually done for all
times. But there still was a perceptible difference between the
institution of marriage and the other things mentioned, viewed
with respect to the matters now more immediately under con
sideration. This will be explained in the sequel; at present it
is enough to state, that while we do not exclude marriage from
our point of view, neither do we assign it exactly the same place
as the other ordinances of primeval times.
CHAPTER SECOND.
THE TREE OF LIFE.
THE first mention made of the tree of life has respect to its
place and use, as part of the original constitution of things, in
which all presented the aspect of relative perfection and com
pleteness. " Out of the ground," it is said, " made the Lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good
for food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The special notice
taken of these two trees plainly indicates their singular and pre
eminent importance in the economy of the primeval world ; but
in different respects. The design of the tree of knowledge was
entirely moral : it was set there as the test and instrument of
probation; and its disuse, if we may so speak, was its only
allowable use. The tree of life, however, had its natural use,
like the other trees of the garden ; and both from its name, and
from its position in the centre of the garden, we may infer that
the effect of its fruit upon the human frame was designed to be
altogether peculiar. But this comes out more distinctly in the
next notice we have of it when, from being simply an ordi
nance of nature, it passed into a symbol of grace. " And the
Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know
good and evil ; and now lest he put forth his hand, and take
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ; therefore the
Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the
ground, from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man ;
and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim,
and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way
of the tree of life."
These words seem plainly to indicate, that the tree of life
was originally intended for the food of man ; that the fruit it
yielded was the divinely appointed medium of maintaining in
him the power of an endless life ; and that now, since he had
THE TREE OF LIFE. 251
sinned against God, and had lost all right to the possession of
such a power, he was debarred from access to the natural means
of sustaining it, by being himself rigorously excluded from the
garden of Eden. What might be the peculiar properties of
that tree whether in its own nature it differed essentially from
the other trees of the garden, or differed only by a kind of
sacramental efficacy attached to it is not distinctly stated, and
can be matter only of conjecture or of probable inference.
P&gt;ut in its relation to man s frame, there apparently was this
difference between it and the other trees, that while they might
contribute to his daily support, it alone could preserve in unde-
caying vigour a being to be supported. In accordance with its
position in the centre of the garden, it possessed the singular
virtue of ministering to human life in the fountainhead of up
holding that life in its root and principle, while the other trees
could only furnish what was needed for the exercise of its exist
ing functions. They might have kept nature alive for a time,
as the fruits of the earth do still ; but to it belonged the pro
perty of fortifying the vital powers of nature against the injuries
of disease and the dissolution of death. 1
This was undoubtedly well known to Adam, as it was an
essential part of the constitution of things around him. And if
1 I have given here only what seems to be the fair and the general
import of what is written in Genesis respecting the tree of life ; but have
avoided any deliverance on the much disputed point, whether by inherent
virtue, or by a kind of sacramental efficacy, the fruit of this tree was in
tended to produce its life-giving influence upon man. The great majority
of Protestant divines incline to the latter view ; although it must be allowed,
the idea of a sacramental virtue in a natural constitution of things seems
somewhat out of place, and cannot very easily be distinguished from the
Catholic view, which holds certain things to have been supernaturally con
ferred on Adam, and others to have belonged to him by natural constitution.
But the subject, with reference to that specific question, is one on which
we want materials for properly deciding, and regarding which opinions
are almost sure to differ in the future, as they have done in the past. We
could not well have a clearer proof of this, than is afforded by two of the
latest commentators on Genesis two also, who are so generally agreed in
sentiment, that they are engaged together in producing a commentary on
the entire books of the Old Testament Delitzsch and Keih The former is
of opinion that the passage, Gen. iii. 22, distinctly intimates that the tree
in question had u the power of life in itself," " a power of perpetually re
newing and gradually transforming the natural life of man." (Comm. uber
252
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
he had remained stedfast in his allegiance to God, ever restrain
ing his desire from the tree of knowledge, and partaking only
of the tree of life, he would have continued to possess life, in
incorrupt purity and blessedness, as he received it from the hand
of God, possibly also might have been conscious of a growing
enlargement and elevation in its powers and functions. But
choosing the perilous course of transgression, he forfeited his
inheritance of life, and became subject to the threatened penalty
of death. The tree of life, however, did not lose its life-sus
taining virtue, because the condition on which man s right to
partake of it had been violated. It remained what God origin
ally made it. And though effectual precautions must now r be
taken to guard its sacred treasure from the touch of polluted
hands, yet there it stood in the centre of the garden still, the
object of fond aspirations as well as hallowed recollections
though enshrined in a sacredness which rendered it for the pre
sent inaccessible to fallen man. Why should its place have
been so carefully preserved ? and the symbols of worship, the
emblems of fear and hope, planted in the very way that led to
it? if not to intimate, that the privilege of partaking of its
immortal fruit was only for a season withheld, not finally with
drawn waiting till a righteousness should be brought in, which
die Genes., p. 154, 194, 2d ed.) And from this he draws the inference, that
the fruit of the tree of knowledge also had the power of death in itself,
rendering the participation of it deadly. Keil, however, is equally decided
on the other side ; he says, " We must not seek the power of the tree of
life in the physical property of its fruit. No earthly fruit possesses the
power of rendering immortal the life, to the support of which it ministers.
Life has its root, not in the corporeity of man, but in his spiritual nature,
in which it finds its stability and continuance, as well as its origin. The
body formed of the dust of earth could not, as such, be immortal; it
must either again return to earth and become dust, or through the Spirit
be transformed into the immortal nature of the soul. The power is of a
spiritual kind, which can transfuse immortality into the bodily frame. It
could have been imparted to the earthly tree, or its fruit, only through
a special operation of God s word, through an agency which we can no
otherwise represent to ourselves than as of a sacramental nature, whereby
earthly elements are consecrated to become vessels and bearers of super
natural powers." (Bib. Comm. uler die Bucker Moses, I. p. 45.) That
uch is the case now, there can be no doubt ; but it may be questioned
whether it does not proceed on too close an assimilation of matters in the
primeval, to those of the existing, state of things.
THE TREE OF LIFE. 253
might again open the way to its blessed provisions. For as the
loss of righteousness had shut up the way, it was manifest that
only bv the return of righteousness could a fresh access to the
forfeited food be attained. And hence it became, as we shall
see, one of the leading objects of God s administration, to dis
close the necessity and unfold the nature and conditions of such
a work of righteousness as might be adequate to so important
an end. The relation man now occupied to the tree of life
could of itself furnish no information on this point. It could
only indicate that the inheritance of immortal life was still
reserved for him, on the supposition of a true and proper right
eousness being attained. So that in this primary symbolical
ordinance, the hope which had been awakened in his bosom by
the first promise, assumed the pleasing aspect of a return to the
enjoyment of that immortal life from which, on account of sin,
he was appointed to suffer a temporary exclusion.
But, coupled as this hope was with the present existence of
a fallen condition, and the certainty of a speedy return for the
body to the dust of death, it of necessity carried along with it
the expectation of a future state of being, and of a resurrection
from the dead. The prospect of a deliverance from evil, and
of a restored immortality of life and blessing, was not to be
immediately realized. The now forbidden tree of life was to
continue unapproachable, so long as men bore about with them
the body of sin and death. They could find the way of life
only through the charnel-house of the grave. And it had been
a mocking of their best feelings and aspirations, to have held
out to them the promise of a victory over the tempter, or to
have embodied that promise in a new direction of their hopes
toward the tree of life, if there had not been couched under it
the assured prospect of a life after death, and out of it. In
truth, religious faith and hope could not have taken form and
being in the bosom of fallen men, excepting on the ground
of such an anticipated futurity. Nor were there long want
ing events in the history of Divine providence which would
naturally tend to strengthen, in thoughtful and considerate
minds, this hopeful anticipation of a future existence. The
untimely death of Abel, and the translation of Enoch in the
micUtime of his days, must especially have wrought in this
254 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
direction ; since, viewed in connection with the whole circum
stances of the time, they could scarcely fail to produce the im
pression, that not only was the real inheritance of blessing to be
looked for in a scene of existence beyond the present, but that
the clearest title to this might be conjoined with a compara
tively brief and contracted portion of good on earth. Such
facts, read in the light of the promise, that the destroyer was
yet to be destroyed, and a pathway opened to the lost for par
taking anew of the food of immortality, could lead to but one
conclusion that the good to be inherited by the heirs of pro
mise necessarily involved a state of life and blessing after this.
We find the later Jews notwithstanding their false views
o
respecting the Messiah indicating in their comments some
knowledge of the truth thus signified to the first race of wor
shippers by their relation to the tree of life. For, of the seven
things which they imagined the Messiah should show to Israel,
two were, the garden of Eden and the tree of life ; and again,
"There are also that say of the tree of life, that it was not
created in vain, but the men of the resurrection shall eat there
of, and live for ever." 1 These were but the glimmerings of
light obtained by men who had to grope their way amid
judicial blindness and the misguiding influence of hereditary
delusions. Adam and his immediate offspring were in happier
circumstances for the discernment of the truth now under con
sideration. And unless the promise of recovery remained ab
solutely a dead letter to them, and nothing was learned from
their symbolical and expectant relationship to the tree of life (a
thing scarcely possible in the circumstances), there must have
been cherished in their minds the conviction of a life after
death, and the hope of a deliverance from its corruption. Re
ligion at the very first rooted itself in the belief of immortality. 2
So much for what the things connected with the tree of life
imported to those whom they more immediately respected. Let
us glance for a little to the fuller insight afforded into them for
such as possess the later revelations of Scripture. "To-day,"
said Jesus on the cross to the penitent malefactor, " to-day shalt
thou be with Me in Paradise" showing how confidently He
1 R. Elias ben Mosis, and R. Menahem, in Ainsworth on Gen. iii.
2 See farther at beginning of Ch. VI., sec. 6.
THE TREE OF LIFE. 255
regarded death as the way to victory, and how completely He
was going to bruise the head of the tempter, since He was now
to make good for Himself and His people a return to the region
of bliss, which that tempter had been the occasion of alienating.
" To him that overcometh," says the same Jesus, after having
entered on His glory, "will I give to eat of the tree of life, that
is in the midst of the paradise of God." And again, " Blessed
are they that do His commandments, that they may have right
to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the
city." (Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 14.) The least we can gather from
such declarations is, that everything which was lost in Adam,
shall be again recovered in Christ for the heirs of His salvation.
The far distant ends of revelation are seen embracing each
other; and the last look we obtain into the workmanship of
God corresponds with the first, as face answers to face. The
same God of love and beneficence who was the beginning,
proves Himself to be also the ending. It is the intermediate
portion alone which seems less properly to hold of Him being
in so many respects marred with evil, and chequered with ad
versity to the members of His family. There, indeed, we see
much that is unlike God His once beautiful workmanship
defaced the comely order of His government disturbed the
world He had destined for " the house of the glory of His
kingdom," rendered the theatre of a fierce and incessant
warfare between the elements of good and evil, in which the
better part is too often put to the worse and humanity, which
He had made to be an image of Himself, smitten in all its
members with the wound of a sore disease, beset when living
with numberless calamities, and becoming, when -dead, the prey
of its most vile and loathsome adversaries. How cheering to
know that this unhappy state of disorder and confusion is not
to be perpetual that it occupies but the mid-region of time
and is destined to be supplanted in the final issues of providence
by the restitution of all things to their original harmony and
blessedness of life ! The tempter has prevailed long, but, God
be thanked, he is not to prevail for ever. There is yet to come
forth from the world, which he has filled with his works of evil,
new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness shall dwell
another paradise with its tree of life and a ransomed people
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
created anew after the image of God, and fitted for the high
destiny of manifesting His glory before the universe.
But great as this is, it is not the whole. The antitype is
always higher than the type ; and the work of grace transcends
in excellence and glory the work of nature. When, therefore,
we are told of a new creation, with its tree of life, and its para
disiacal delights yet to be enjoyed by the people of God, much
more is actually promised than the simple recovery of what was
lost by sin. There will be a sphere and condition of being
similar in kind, but, in the nature of the things belonging to it,
immensely higher and better than what was originally set up
by the hand of God. All things proceeding from Him are
beautiful in their place and season. And it is true of the
paradise which has been lost, that its means of life and enjoy
ment were in every respect wisely adapted to the frames of
those who were made for occupying it. But of these it is
written, that they were " of the earth, earthy " only relatively,
not absolutely good in themselves lumpish and infirm tene
ments of clay, and as such necessarily imperfect in their tastes,
their faculties of action and enjoyment, as compared with what
is found in the higher regions of existence.
But, undoubtedly, the same adaptation that existed in the old
creation between the nature of the region and the frames of its
inhabitants, shall exist also in the new. And as the occupants
here shall be the second Adam and His seed the Lord from
heaven, in whom humanity has been raised to peerless majesty
and splendour there must also be a corresponding rise in the
nature of the things to be occupied. A higher sphere of action
and enjoyment shall be brought in, because there is a higher
style of being to possess it. There shall not be the laying anew
of earth s old foundations, but rather the raising of these aloft
to a nobler elevation not nature revived merely, but nature
glorified humanity, no longer as it was in the earthy and
natural man, but as it is and ever shall be in the spiritual and
heavenly, and that placed in a theatre of life and blessing every
way suitable to its exalted condition.
Such being the case, it will readily be understood, that the
promise, symbolically exhibited in the Old, and distinctly ex
pressed in New Testament Scripture, of a return to paradise and
THE TREE OF LIFE. 257
its tree of life, is not to be taken literally. The dim shadow only,
not the very image of the good to be possessed, is presented under
this imperfect form. And we are no more to think of an actual
tree, such as that which originally stood in the centre of Eden,
than of actual manna, or of a material crown, which are, in like
manner, promised to the faithful. These, and many similar
representations found respecting the world to come, are but a
figurative employment of the best in the past or present state
of things, to aid the mind in conceiving of the future ; as thus
alone can it attain to any clear or distinct conception of them.
Yet while all are figurative, they have still a definite and intel
ligible meaning. And when the assurance is given to sincere
believers, not only of a paradise for their abode, but also of a tree
of life for their participation, they are thereby certified of all
that may be needed for the perpetual refreshment and support
of their glorified natures. These shall certainly require no such
carnal sustenance as was provided for Adam in Eden ; they shall
be cast in another mould. But as they shall still be material
frameworks, they must have a certain dependence on the material
elements around them for the possession of a healthful and
blessed existence. The internal and the external, the personal
and the relative, shall be in harmonious and fitting adjustment to
each other. All hunger shall be satisfied, and all thirst for ever
quenched. The inhabitant shall never say, " I am sick." And
like the river itself, which flows in perennial fulness from the
throne of God, the well-spring of life in the redeemed shall never
know interruption or decay. Blessed, then, it may be truly said,
are those who do the commandments of God, that they may have
right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into
the city. What can a doomed and fleeting world afford in com
parison of such a prospect ?
VOL. I.
CHAPTER THIRD.
THE CHERUBIM (AND THE FLAMING SWORD).
THE truths symbolized by man s new relation to the tree of life
have still to be viewed in connection with the means appointed
by God to fence the way of approach to it, and the creaturely
forms that were now planted on its borders. " And the Lord
God," it is said, "placed at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep
the way of the tree of life." We can easily imagine that the
sword, with its flaming brightness and revolving movements,
might be suspended there simply as the emblem of God s aveng
ing justice, and as the instrument of man s exclusion from the
region of life. In that one service the end of its appointment
might be fulfilled, and its symbolical meaning exhausted. Such,
indeed, appears to have been the case. But the cherubim, which
also had a place assigned them toward the east of the garden,
must have had some farther use, as the sword alone would have
been sufficient to prevent access to the forbidden region. The
cherubim must have been added for the purpose of rendering
more complete the instruction intended to be conveyed to man
by means of the symbolical apparatus here presented to his con
templation. And as these cherubic figures hold an important
place also in subsequent revelations, we shall here enter into a
somewhat minute and careful investigation of the subject. The
view we mean to exhibit cannot be said to differ radically from
that presented in the first edition of this work ; but it will
certainly differ considerably in the mode of investigation pur
sued, and in some also of the results obtained. We leant for
merly too much upon the representations of Bahr, which we now
perceive to be in themselves, as well as in the purpose to which
they are applied, of a more fanciful and objectionable nature
than they at one time appeared.
There is nothing to be expected here from etymological re-
THE CHERUBIM. 259
searches. Many derivations and meanings have been ascribed
to the term cherub ; but nothing certain has been established
regarding it ; and it may now be confidently assigned to that
class of words, whose original import is involved in hopeless
obscurity. 1 In the passage of Genesis above cited, where the
word first occurs, not only is no clue given in regard to the
meaning of the name, but there is not even any description pre
sented of the objects it denoted ; they are spoken of as definite
forms or existences, of which the name alone afforded sufficient
indication. This will appear more clearly if we adhere to the
exact rendering : " And He placed (or, made to dwell) at the
east of the garden of Eden the cherubim " not certain unknown
figures or imaginary existences, but the specific forms of being,
familiarly designated by that name.
In other parts of Scripture, however, the defect is in great
measure supplied ; and by comparing the different statements
there contained with each other, and putting the whole together,
we may at least approximate, if not absolutely arrive at, a full
and satisfactory knowledge of the symbol.
But in ascertaining the sense of Scripture on the subject,
there are two considerations which ought to be borne in mind,
as a necessary check on extreme or fanciful deductions. The
first is, that in this, as well as in other religious symbols (those,
for example, connected with food and sacrifice), there may have
been, and most probably was, a progression in the use made of
it from time to time. In that case, the representations employed
at one period must have been so constructed as to convey a fuller
meaning than those employed at another. Whatever aspects of
Divine truth, therefore, may be discovered in the later passages
1 Hofmann has lately revived the notion, that ^13 (cherub) is simply
2}2"1 (chariot), with a not unusual transposition of letters; and conceives the
name to have been given to the cherubim on account of their being em
ployed as the chariot or throne of Jehovah (Weissagung und Erfullung, L,
p. 80). Delitzsch, too, is not disinclined to this derivation and meaning,
though he would rather derive the term from 2")3 (to lay hold of), and
understands it of the cherubim as laying hold of and bearing away the
throne of Jehovah (Die Genesis Ausgelegt, p. 46). Thenius in his Comm.
on Kings also adopts this derivation, but applies it differently. Both deri
vations, and the ideas respecting the cherubim they are intended to support,
are quite conjectural.
260 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
which treat of the cherubim, should not, as a matter of course,
be ascribed in all their entireness to the earlier. Respect must
always be had to the relative differences of place and time.
Another consideration is, that whatever room there may be for
diversity in the way now specified, we must not allow any repre
sentation that may be given in one place a specific representa
tion to impose a generic meaning on the symbol, which is not
borne out, but possibly contradicted, by representations in others.
Progressive differences can only affect what is circumstantial,
not what is essential to the subject ; and all that is properly
fundamental in the cherubic imagery, must be found in accord
ance, not with a partial, but with the complete testimony of
Scripture respecting it.
With these guiding principles in our eye, we proceed to ex
hibit \vhat may be collected from the different notices of Scrip
ture on the subject ranging our remarks under the following
natural divisions : the descriptions given of the cherubim as to
form and appearance, the designations applied to them, the
positions assigned them, and the kinds of agency with which
they are associated.
1. In regard to the first of these points the descriptions
given of the cherubim as to form and appearance there is
nothing very definite in the earlier Scriptures, nor are the ac
counts in the later perfectly uniform. Even in the detailed
narrative of Exodus respecting the furniture of the tabernacle,
it is still taken for granted, that the forms of the cherubim were
familiarly known ; and we are told nothing concerning their
structure, besides its being incidentally stated that they had faces
and wings. (Ex. xxv., xxxvii.) It would seem, however, that
while certain elements were always understood to enter into
the composition of the cherub, the form given to it was not abso
lutely fixed, but admitted of certain variations. The cherubim
seen by Ezekiel beneath the throne of God, are represented as
having each four faces and four wings (ch. i. 6) ; while in the
description subsequently given by him of the cherubic repre
sentations on the walls of his visionary temple (ch. xli. 18, 19),
mention is made of only two faces appearing in each. In Re
velation, again (ch. iv. 7, 8), while four composite forms, as in
Ezekiel, are adhered to throughout, the creatures are represented
THE CHERUBIM. 2G1
as not having each four faces, but having each a face after one
of the four types ; and the number of wings belonging to each
is also different not four, but six. 1 In the Apocalyptic vision
the creatures themselves appear full of eyes, before and behind,
as they do also in Ezek. x. 12, where " their whole flesh, and
their backs, and their hands, and their wings," are said to have
been full of eyes ; but in Ezekiel s first vision, the eyes were
confined only to the wheels connected with the cherubim (ch. i.
18). It is impossible, therefore, without doing violence to the
accounts given in the several delineations, to avoid the convic
tion, that a certain latitude was allowed in regard to the par
ticular forms : and that, as exhibited in vision at least, they
were not altogether uniform in appearance. They were uniform,
however, in two leading respects, which may hence be regarded
as the more important elements in the cherubic form. They
had, first, the predominating appearance of a man a man s
body and gesture as is evident, first, from their erect posture ;
then from Ezek. i. 5, " they had the appearance of a man ;"
and also from the peculiar expression in Kev. iv. 7, where it is
said of the third, " that it had a face as a man" which is best
understood to mean, that while the other creatures were unlike
man in the face, though like in the body, this was like in the
face as well. The same inference is still further deducible from
the part taken by the cherubim in the Apocalypse, along with
the elders and the redeemed generally, in celebrating the praise
of God. The other point of agreement is, that in all the de
scriptions actually given, the cherubim have a composite appear
ance with the form of a man, indeed, predominating, but with
other animal forms combined those, namely, of the lion, the
ox, and the eagle.
Now, there can be no doubt that these three creatures, along
with man, make up together, according to the estimation of a
remote antiquity, the most perfect forms of animal existence.
1 Vitringa justly remarks as to the difference between St John s repre
sentation and Ezekiel s respecting the faces, that "it is not of essential
moment ; for the beasts most intimately connected together form, as it
were, one beast -existence, and it is a matter of indifference whether all the
properties are represented as belonging to each of the four, or singly to
each."
202 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
They belong to those departments of the visible creation which
constitute the first in rank and importance of its three kingdoms
the kingdom of animal life. And in that kingdom they be
long to the highest class to that which possesses warm blood
and physical life 1 in its fullest development. Nay, in that
highest ( lass they an; again the highest; for the ox in ancient
times was plwed ;il,&lt;&gt;ve the horse, on account of his fitness for
useful and patient labour in the operations of husbandry. And
hence the old Jewish proverb " Four are the highest in the
world the lion among wild beasts, the ox among tame cattle,
the eagle among birds, man among all (creatures) ; but God is
supreme over all." The meaning is, that in these four kinds
are exhibited the highest forms of creature-life on earth, but
that God is still infinitely exalted above these; since all crea
ture-life springs out of His fulness, and is dependent on 115s
hand. So that a creature compounded of all these bearing in
its general shape and structure the lineaments of a man, but
associating with the human the appearance and properties also
of the three next highest orders of animal existence might
seem a kind of concrete manifestation of created life on earth
a sort of personified crcaturehood.
But the thought naturally occurs, why thus strangely amal
gamated and combined I If the object had been simply to
afford a representation of creaturely existence in general by
means of its higher forms, we would naturally have expected
them to stand apart as they actually appear in nature. But
instead of this they are thrown into one representation ; and so,
indeed, that however the representation may vary, still the in
ferior forms of animal life constantly appear as grafted upon,
and clustering around, the organism of man. There is thus a
striking unity in the diversity a human ground and body, so
to speak in the grouped figures of the representation, which
could not fail to attract the notice of a contemplative mind, and
must have been designed to form an essential element in the
symbolical representation. It is an ideal combination ; no such
composite creature as the cherub exists in the actual world ; arid
we can think of no reason why the singular combination it pre
sents of animal forms, should have been set upon that of man
as the trunk and centre of the whole, unless it were to exhibit
THE CHERUBIM. 263
the higher elements of humanity in some kind of organic con
nection with certain distinctive properties of the inferior creation.
The nature of man is incomparably the highest upon earth, and
towers loftily above all the rest by powers peculiar to itself.
Antl yet we can easily conceive how this very nature of man
might be greatly raised and ennobled by having superadded to
its own inherent qualities, those of which the other animal forms
now before us stand as the appropriate types.
Thus, the lion among ancient nations generally, and in par
ticular among the Hebrews, was the representative of king-like
majesty and peerless strength. All the beasts of the field stand
in awe of him, none being able to cope with him in might; and
his roar strikes terror wherever it is heard. Hence the lion is
naturally regarded as the king of the forest, where might is the
sole ground of authority and rule. And hence, also, lions were
placed both at the right and left of Solomon s throne, as symbols
of royal majesty and supreme power. As the lion among
quadrupeds, so the eagle is king among birds, and stands pre
eminent in the two properties that more peculiarly distinguish
the winged creation those of vision and flight. The term eagle-
eyed has been quite proverbial in every age. The eagle perceives
his prey from the loftiest elevation, where he himself appears
scarcely discernible ; and it has even been believed, that he can
descry the smallest fish in the sea, and look with undazzled gaze
upon the sun. His power of wing, however, is still more re
markable : no bird can fly either so high or so far. Moving
with king-like freedom and velocity through the loftiest regions
and the most extended space, we naturally think of him as the
fittest image of something like angelic nimbleness of action. It
is this more especially, or, we should rather say, this exclusively,
which is symbolically associated with the eagle in Scripture.
No reference is made there to the eagle s strength of vision, but
very frequent allusion to his extraordinary power of flight
(Deut. xxviii. 49 ; Job ix. 26 ; Prov. xxiii. 5 ; Hab. i. 8, etc.).
And hence, too, in Rev. iv. 7, the epithet flying is attached to
the eagle, to indicate that this is the quality specially made
account of. Finally, the ox was among the ancients the com
mon image of patient labour and productive energy. It naturally
came to bear this signification from its early use in the opera-
264
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
tions of husbandry in ploughing and harrowing the ground,
then bearing home the sheaves, and at last treading out the
corn. On this account the bovine form was so frequently
chosen, especially in agricultural countries like Egypt, as the
most appropriate symbol of Deity, in its inexhaustible produc
tiveness. And if associated with man, the idea would instinc
tively suggest itself of patient labour and productive energy in
working.
Such, then, not by any conjectural hypothesis or strained
interpretations, but by the simplest reading of the descriptions
given in the Bible, appear to have been the generic form and
idea of the cherubim. It is absolutely necessary that we should
apply the light furnished by those passages in which they are
described, to those also in which they are not ; and that what are
expressly named and described as the cherubim, when seen in
prophetic vision, must be regarded as substantially agreeing with
those which had a visible appearance and a local habitation on
earth for, otherwise, the subject would be involved by Scripture
itself in inextricable confusion. Assuming these points, we are
warranted to think of the cherubim, wherever they are men
tioned, as presenting in their composite structure, and having as
the very basis of that structure, the form of man the only being
on earth that is possessed of a rational and moral nature ; yet
combining, along with this, and organically uniting to it, the
animal representatives of majesty and strength, winged velocity,
patient and productive labour. Why united and combined thus,
the mere descriptions of the cherubic appearances give no inti
mation; we must search for information concerning it in the
other points that remain to be considered. So far, we have been
simply putting together the different features of the descriptions,
and viewing the cherubic figures in their individual characteris
tics and relative bearing. 1
1 Hengstenberg, in his remarks on Rev. iv. 7, regarding the cherubim
as simple representations of the animal creation on earth, objects to any
symbolical meaning being attached to the separate animal forms, on the
special ground, that in that passage of Revelation it is the calf, not the ox,
which is mentioned in the description as it is also found once in the de
scription of Ezekiel, ch. i. 7. He thinks this cannot be accidental, but must
have been designed to prevent our attributing to it the symbolical meaning
of productiveness, or such like ; as no one would think of associating that
TIIK CIIKKUBIM. 2G5
2. We named, as our second point of inquiry, the designa
tions applied to the cherubim in Scripture. The term cherubim
itself being the more common and specific of these, would
naturally call for consideration first, if any certain key could be
found to its correct import. But this we have already assigned
to the class of things over which a hopeless obscurity may be
said to hang. There is another designation, however, originally
applied to them by "Ezekiel, and the sole designation given to
them in the Apocalypse, from which some additional light may
be derived. This expression is in the original rri s n, animantia,
living ones, or living creatures. The Septuagint uses the quite
synonymous term wa ; and this, again, is the word uniformly
employed by St John, when speaking of the cherubim. It has
been unhappily rendered by our translators beasts in the Revela
tion ; thus incongruously associating with the immediate presence
and throne of God mere animal existences, and identifying in
name the most exalted creaturely forms of being in the heavenly
places, with the grovelling symbolical head of the antichristian
and ungodly powers of the world. This is what bears, in the
Apocalypse, the distinctive name of the beast (Orjptov) ; and the
name should never have been applied to the ideal creatures,
which derive their distinctive appellation from the fulness of
life belonging to them the living ones. The frequency with
which this name is used of the cherubim is remarkable. In
Ezekiel and the Apocalypse together it occurs nearly thirty
times, and may consequently be regarded as peculiarly expres
sive of the symbolical character of the cherubim. It presents
idea with a calf. We are surprised at so weak an objection from such a
quarter. There can be no doubt and it is not only admitted but contended
for by Hengstenberg himself in his Beitriige, i., p. 161, sq. that in connec
tion with that symbolical meaning the ox- worship of Egypt was erected, and
from Egypt was introduced among the Israelites at Sinai, and again by
Jeroboam at a later period. Yet in Scripture it is always spoken of, not
as ox, or bull, or cow, but as calf-worship. This conclusively shows that,
symbolically viewed, no distinction was made between ox and calf. And in
the description of such figures as the cherubim, calf might very naturally be
substituted for ox, simply on account of the smaller and more delicate out
line which the form would present. It is possible the same appearance may
partly have contributed to the idols at Bethel and Dan being designated
calves rather than oxen.
266 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
them to our view as exhibiting the property of life in its highest
state of power and activity ; therefore, as creatures altogether
instinct with life. And the idea thus conveyed by the name is
further substantiated by one or two traits associated with them
in Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. Such, especially, is the very
singular multiplicity of eyes attached to them, appearing first in
the mystic wheels that regulated their movements, and after
wards in the cherubic forms themselves. For the eye is the
symbol of intelligent life ; the living spirit s most peculiar organ
and index. And to represent the cherubim as so strangely re
plenished with eyes, could only be intended to make them known
to us as wholly inspirited. Accordingly, in the first vision of
Ezekiel, in which the eyes belonged immediately to the wheels,
" the spirit of the living creatures " is said to have been in the
wheels (ch. i. 20) ; where the eye was, there also was the in
telligent, thinking, directive spirit of life. Another and quite
similar trait, is the quick and restless activity ascribed to them
by both writers by Ezekiel, when he represents them as
" running and returning " with lightning speed ; and by St
John, when he describes them as " resting not day or night."
Incessant motion is one of the most obvious symptoms of a
plenitude of life. We instinctively associate the property of
life even with the inanimate things that exhibit motion -such as
fountains and running streams, which are called living, in con
tradistinction to stagnant pools, that seem dead in comparison.
And in the Hebrew tongue, these two symbols of life eyes and
fountains have their common symbolical meaning marked by
the employment of the same term to denote them both (P.J?). So
that creatures which appeared to be all eyes and all motion, are,
in plain terms, those in which the powers and properties of life
were quite peculiarly displayed.
We believe there is a still further designation applied to the
same objects in Scripture the seraphim of Isaiah (ch. vi.). It
is in the highest degree improbable, that the prophet should by
that name, so abruptly introduced, have pointed to an order of
existences, or a form of being, nowhere else mentioned in Scrip
ture ; but quite natural that he should have referred to the
cherubim in the sanctuary, as the scene of the vision lay there ;
and the more especially, as three characteristics the possession
THE CHERUBIM. 2G7
by each of six wings, the position of immediate proximity to the
throne of God, and the threefold proclamation of Jehovah s
holiness are those also which reappear again, at the very out
set, in St John s description of the cherubim. That they should
have been called by the name of seraphim (burning ones) is no
way inconsistent with this idea, for it merely embodies in a
designation the thought symbolized in the vision of Ezekiel
under the appearance of fire, giving forth flashes of lightning,
which appeared to stream from the cherubim (ch. i. 13). In
both alike, the fire, whether connected with the name or the
appearance, denoted the wrath, which was the most prominent
feature in the Divine manifestation at the time. But as, in
thus identifying the cherubim with the seraphim, we tread on
somewhat doubtful ground, we shall make no further use of the
thoughts suggested by it.
It is right to notice, however, that the designation we have
more particularly considered, and the emblematic representa
tions illustrative of it, belong to the later portions of Scripture,
which treat of the cherubim ; and while we cannot but regard
the idea thus exhibited, as essentially connected with the
cherubic form of being, a fundamental element in its meaning,
it certainly could not be by any means so vividly displayed in
the cherubim of the tabernacle, which were stationary figures.
Nor can we tell distinctly how it stood in this respect with the
cherubim of Eden; we know not what precise form and attitude
were borne by them. But not only the representations we have
been considering the analogy also of the cherubim in the
tabernacle, with their outstretched wings, as in the act of
flying, and their eyes intently directed toward the mercy-seat,
as if they were actually beholding and pondering what was
there exhibited, may justly lead us to infer, that in some way
or another a life-like appearance was also presented by the
cherubim of Eden. Absolutely motionless or dead-like forms
would have been peculiarly out of place in the way to the tree
of life. Yet of what sort this fulness of life might be, which
was exhibited in the cherubim, we have still had no clear in
dication. From various things that have pressed themselves on
our notice, it might not doubtfully have been inferred to be life
in the highest sense life spiritual and divine. But this comes
268 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
out more prominently in connection with the other aspects of
the subject which remain to be contemplated.
3. We proceed, therefore, to the point next in order the
positions assigned to the cherubim in Scripture. These are
properly but two, and, by having regard only to what is essen
tial in the matter, might possibly be reduced to one. But as
they ostensibly and locally differ, we shall treat them apart.
They are the garden of Eden, and the dwelling-place or throne
of God in the tabernacle.
The first local residence in which the cherubim appear, was
the garden of Eden the earthly paradise. What, however,
was this, but the proper home and habitation of life 1 of life
generally, but emphatically of the divine life? Everything
there seemed to breathe the air, and to exhibit the fresh and
blooming aspect of life. Streams of water ran through it to
supply all its productions with nourishment, and keep them in
perpetual healthfullness ; multitudes of living creatures roamed
amid its bowers, and the tree of life, at once the emblem and
the seal of immortality, rose in the centre, as if to shed a vivify
ing influence over the entire domain. Most fitly was it called
by the Rabbins " the land of life." But it was life, we soon
perceive, in the higher sense life, not merely as opposed to
bodily decay and dissolution, but as opposed also to sin, which
brings death to the soul. Eden was the garden of delight,
which God gave to man as the image of Himself, the possessor
of that spiritual and holy life which has its fountainhead in
God. And the moment man ceased to fulfil the part required
of Him as such, and yielded himself to the service of un
righteousness, he lost his heritage of blessing, and was driven
forth as an heir of mortality and corruption from the hallowed
region of life. When, therefore, the cherubim were set in the
garden to occupy the place which man had forfeited by his
transgression, it was impossible but that they should be re
garded as the representatives, not of life merely, but of the life
that is in God, and in connection with which evil cannot dwell.
This they were by their very position within the sacred terri
tory whatever other ideas may have been symbolized by their
peculiar structure and more special relations.
The other and more common position assigned to the cheru-
THE CHERUBIM. 269
bim is in immediate connection with the dwelling-place and
throne of God. This connection comes first into view when the
instructions were given to Moses regarding the construction of
the tabernacle in the wilderness. As the tabernacle was to be,
in a manner, the habitation of God, where Pie was to dwell and
manifest Himself to His people, the whole of the curtains form
ing the interior of the tent were commanded to be inwoven with
cherubic figures. But as the inner sanctuary was more espe
cially the habitation of God, where He fixed His throne of
holiness, Moses was commanded, for the erection of this throne,
to make two cherubim, one at each end of the ark of the cove
nant, and to place them so, that they should stand with out
stretched wings, their faces toward each other, and toward the
mercy-seat, the lid of the ark, which lay between them. That
mercy-seat, or the space immediately above it, bounded on either
side by the cherubim, and covered by their wings (Ex. xxv. 20),
was the throne of God, as the God of the Old Covenant, the
ideal seat of the Divine commonwealth in Israel. " There" said
God to Moses, " will I meet with thee, and I will commune with
thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim
which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I
will give thee in commandment to the children of Israel."
(Ex. xxv. 22.) This is the fundamental passage regarding the
connection of the cherubim with the throne of God ; and it is
carefully to be noted, that while the seat of the Divine presence
and glory is said to be above the mercy-seat, it is also said to be
between the cherubim. The same form of expression is used also
in another passage in the Pentateuch, which may likewise be
called a fundamental one, Numb. vii. 89, " And when Moses
was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation (more properly,
the tent of meeting) to speak with Him, then he heard the voice
of one speaking unto him from off the mercy-seat that was upon
the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubim." Hence
the Lord was spoken of as the God " who dwelleth between the
cherubims," according to our version, and correctly as to the
sense ; though, as the verb is used without a preposition in the
original, the more exact rendering would be, the God who
dwelleth-in (inhabiteth, ptf), or occupies (3B*, viz., as a throne
or seat) the cherubim. These two verbs are interchanged in the
270 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
form of expression, which is used with considerable frequency
(for example, 1 Sam. iv. 4 ; 2 Sam. vi. 2 ; Ps. Ixxx. 1, xcix. 1,
etc.) ; and it is from the use of the first of them that the Jewish
term Shekinah (the indwelling), in reference to the symbol of
the Divine presence, is derived. The space above the mercy-seat,
enclosed by the two cherubim with their outstretched wings,
bending and looking toward each other, was regarded as the
local habitation which God possessed as a peculiar dwelling-
place or occupied as a throne in Israel. And it is entirely arbi
trary, and against the plain import of the two fundamental
passages, to insert above, as is still very often done by interpre
ters (" dwelleth," or " sitteth enthroned above the cherubim") ;
still more so to make anything depend, as to the radical meaning
of the symbol, on the seat of God being considered above rather
than between the cherubim.
Hengstenberg is guilty of this error, when he represents the
proper place of the cherubim as being under the throne of God,
and holds that to be their first business though he disallows the
propriety of regarding them as material supports to the throne
(Comm. on Rev. iv. 6). The meaning he adopts of the symbol
absolutely required them to be in this position ; since only by
their being beneath the throne of God, could they with any fit
ness be regarded as imaging the living creation below, as subject
to the overruling power and sovereignty of God. Hofmann
and Delitzsch go still farther in this direction ; and, adopting the
notion repudiated by Hengstenberg, consider the cherubim as the
formal bearers of Jehovah s throne. Delitzsch even affirms, in
opposition (we think) to the plainest language, that wherever
the part of the cherubim is distinctly mentioned in Old Testa
ment Scripture, they appear as the bearers of Jehovah and His
throne, and that He sat enthroned upon the cherubim in the
midst of the worldly sanctuary (Die Genesis Ausgelegt, p. 145).
There are, in fact, only two representations of the kind specified.
One is in Ps. xviii. 10, where the Lord is described as coming
down for judgment upon David s enemies, and in doing so,
" riding upon a cherub, and flying upon the wings of the wind "
obviously a poetical delineation, in which it would be as im
proper to press closely what is said of the position of the cherub,
as what is said of the wings of the wind. The one image was
THE CHERUBIM. 271
probably introduced with the view merely of stamping the
Divine manifestation with a distinctively covenant aspect, as the
other for the purpose of exhibiting the resistless speed of its
movements. But if the allusion is to be taken less ideally, it
must be borne in mind, that the manifestation described is pri
marily and pre-eminently for judgment, not as in the temple, for
mercy ; and this may explain the higher elevation given to the
seat of Divine Majesty. The same holds good also of the other
representation, in which the throne or glory of the Lord appears
above the cherubim. It is in Ezekiel, where, in two several places
(ch. i. 26, x. 1), there is first said to have been a firmament upon
the heads of the living creatures, and then above the firmament
the likeness of a throne. The description is so palpably different
from that given of the Sanctuary, that it would be absurd to
subordinate the one to the other. We must rather hold, that in
the special and immediate object of the theopbany exhibited to
Ezekiel, there was a reason for giving such a position to the
throne of God one somewhat apart from the cherubim, and
elevated distinctly above them. And we believe that reason
may be found, in its being predominantly a manifestation for
judgment, in which the seat of the Divine glory naturally ap
peared to rise to a loftier and more imposing elevation than it
was wont to occupy in the Holiest. This seems to be clearly in
dicated in ch. x. 4, where, in proceeding to the work of judg
ment, the glory of the Lord is represented as going up from the
cherub, and standing over the threshold of the house; imme
diately after which the house was filled with the cloud the
symbol of Divine wrath and retribution. We may add, that the
statement in Rev. iv. 6, where the cherubic forms are said to
have appeared " in the midst of the throne, and round about the
throne," is plainly at variance with the idea of their acting as
supports to the throne. The throne itself is described in v. 2,
as being laid (eVetro) in heaven, which excludes the supposition
of any instruments being employed to bear it aloft. And from
the living creatures being represented as at once in the midst of
the throne, and round about it, nothing further or more certain
can be inferred beyond their appearing in a position of imme
diate nearness to it. The elders sat round about the throne ;
but the cherubim appeared in it as well as around it implying
272 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
that theirs was the place of closest proximity to the Divine Being
who sat on it.
The result, then, which arises, we may almost say with con
clusive certainty from the preceding investigation, is, that the
kind of life which was symbolized by the cherubim, was life
most nearly and essentially connected with God life as it is, or
shall be, held by those who dwell in His immediate presence,
and form, in a manner, the very inclosure and covering of His
throne : pre-eminently, therefore, spiritual and holy life. Holi
ness becomes God s house in general ; and of necessity it rises
to its highest creaturely representation in those who are regarded
as compassing about the most select and glorious portion of the
house the seat of the living God Himself. Whether His
peculiar dwelling were in the garden of Eden, or in the recesses
of a habitation made by men s hands, the presence of the cheru
bim alike proclaimed Him to be One, who indispensably requires
of such as are to be round about Him, the property of life, and
in connection with that the beauty of holiness, which is, in a
sense, the life of life, as possessed and exercised by His intelli
gent offspring.
4. Our last point of scriptural inquiry was to be respecting
the kinds of agency attributed to the cherubim.
We naturally again revert, first, to what is said of them in
connection with the garden of Eden, though our information
there is the scantiest. It is merely said that the cherubim were
made to dwell at the east of the garden, and a flaming sword,
turning every way to keep the way to the tree of life. The two
instruments the cherubim and the sword are associated to
gether in regard to this keeping; and, as the text draws no
distinction between them, it is quite arbitrary to say, with Btihr,
that the cherubim alone had to do with it, and to do with it
precisely as Adam had. It is said of Adam, that " God put
him into the garden to dress it and to keep it" (Gen. ii. 15)
not the one simply, but both together. He had to do a twofold
office in respect to the garden to attend to its cultivation, as
far as might then be needful, and to keep or preserve it, namely,
from the disturbing and desolating influence of evil. The charge
to keep plainly implied some danger of losing. And it became
still plainer, when the tenure of possession was immediately sus-
THE CHERUBIM. 273
pended on a condition, the violation of which was to involve the
penalty of death. The keeping was to be made good against a
possible contingence, which might subvert the order of God,
and change the region of life into a charnel-house of death.
Now it is the same word that is used in regard to the cherubim
and the flaming sword : These now were to keep not, how
ever, like Adam, the entire garden, but simply the way to the
tree of life ; to maintain in respect to this one point the settled
order of Heaven, and that more especially by rendering the way
inaccessible to fallen man. There is here also, no doubt, a pre
sent occupancy ; but the occupancy of only a limited portion, a
mere pathway, and for the definite purpose of defending it from
unhallowed intrusion.
Still, not simply for defence ; for occupancy as well as de
fence. And the most natural thought is, that as in the keeping
there was a twofold idea, so a twofold representation was given
to it ; that the occupancy was more immediately connected with
the cherubim, and the defence against intrusion with the flaming
sword. One does not see otherwise what need there could have
been for both. Nor is it possible to conceive how the ends in
view could otherwise have been served. It was beyond all
doubt for man s spiritual instruction, that such peculiar instru
ments were employed at the east of the garden of Eden, to
awaken and preserve in his bosom right thoughts of the God
with whom he had to do. But an image of terror and repulsion
was not alone sufficient for this. There was needed along with
it an image of mercy and hope ; and both were given in the ap
pearances that actually presented themselves. When the eye of
man looked to the sword, with its burnished and fiery aspect, he
could not but be struck with awe at the thought of God s severe
and retributive justice. But when he saw, at the same time, in
near and friendly connection with that emblem of Jehovah s
righteousness, living or life-like forms of being, cast pre-emi
nently in his own mould, but bearing along with his the likeness
also of the choicest species of the animal creation around him
when he saw this, what could he think but that still for crea
tures of earthly rank, and for himself most of all, an interest
was reserved by the mercy of God in the things that pertained
to the blessed region of life ? That region could not now, by
VOL. I. S
274 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
reason of sin, be actually held by him ; but it was provisionally
held by composite forms of creature-life, in which his nature
appeared as the predominating element. And with what design,
if not to teach, that when that nature of his should have nothing
to fear from the avenging justice of God, it should regain its
place in the holy and blissful haunts from which it had mean
while been excluded? So that, standing before the eastern
approach to Eden, and scanning with intelligence the appear
ances that there presented themselves to his view, the child of
faith might say to himself, That region of life is not finally lost
to me. It has neither been blotted from the face of creation,
nor entrusted to natures of another sphere. Earthly forms still
hold possession of it. The very natures that have lost the pri
vilege continue to have their representation in the new and
unreal-like occupants that are meanwhile appointed to keep it.
Better things, then, are doubtless in reserve for them ; and my
nature, which stands out so conspicuously above them all, fallen
though it be at present, is assuredly destined to rise again, and
enjoy in the reality what is there ideally and representatively
assigned to it.
There is nothing surely unnatural or far-fetched in such a
line of reflection. It manifestly lay within the reach of the
very earliest members of a believing seed ; especially since the
light it is supposed to have conveyed did not stand alone, but
was only supplementary to that embodied in the first grand
promise to the fallen, that the seed of the woman should bruise
the head of the serpent. The supernatural machinery at the
east of the garden merely showed how this bruising was to pro
ceed, and in what result it might be expected to issue. It was
to proceed, not by placing in abeyance the manifestation of
Divine righteousness, but by providing for its being exercised
without the fallen creature being destroyed. Nor should it
issue in a partial, but in a complete recovery nay, in the pos
session of a state higher than before. For the creaturehood of
earth, it would seem, was yet to stand in a closer relation to the
manifested glory of God, and was to become capable of enduring
sights and performing ministrations which were not known in
the original constitution of things on earth.
It might not be possible, perhaps, for the primeval race of
THE CHERUBIM. 275
worshippers to go farther, or to get a more definite insight into
the purposes of God, by contemplating the cherubim. We
scarcely think it could. But we can easily conceive how the
light and hope therewith connected would be felt to grow, when
this embodied creaturehood or, if we rather choose so to regard
it, this ideal manhood was placed in the sanctuary of God s
presence and glory, and so as to form the immediate boundary
and covering of his throne. A relation of greater nearness to
the Divine was there evidently won for the human and earthly.
And not that only, but a step also in advance toward the actual
enjoyment of what was ideally exhibited. For while, at first,
men in flesh and blood were not permitted to enter into the
region of holy life occupied by the cherubim, but only to look at
it from without, now the way was at length partially laid open,
and in the person of the high priest, through the blood of
atonement, they could make an approach, though still only at
stated times, to the very feet of the cherubim of glory. The
blessed and hopeful relation of believing men to these singular
attendants of the Divine majesty rose thus more distinctly into
view, and in more obvious connection also with the means
through which the ultimate realization was to be attained. But
O
the information in this line, and by means of these materials,
reaches its furthest limit, when, in the Apocalyptic vision of a
triumphant Church, the four and twenty elders, who represent
her, are seen sitting in royal state and crowned majesty close
beside the throne, with the cherubic forms in and around it.
There, at last, the ideal and the actual freely meet together the
merely symbolical representatives of the life of God, and its
real possessors, the members of a redeemed and glorified Church.
And the inspiring element of the whole, that which at once ex
plains all and connects all harmoniously together, is the central
object appearing there of " a Lamb, as if it had been slain, in
the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in
the midst of the elders." Here the mystery resolves itself ; in
this consummate wonder all other wonders cease, all difficulties
vanish. The Lamb of God, uniting together heaven and earth,
human gilt and Divine mercy, man s nature and God s perfec
tions, has opened a pathway for the fallen to the very height
and pinnacle of created being. With Him in the midst, as a
276 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
sun and shield, there is ground for the most secure standing, and
for the closest fellowship with God.
We must glance, however, at the other kinds of agency con
nected with the cherubim. In the first vision of Ezekiel, it is
by their appearance, which we have already noticed, not by their
agency, properly speaking, that they convey instruction regard
ing the character of the manifestations of Himself which the
Lord was going to give through the prophet. But at ch. x. 7,
where the approaching judgment upon Jerusalem is symbolically
exhibited by the scattering of coals of fire over the city, the fire
is represented as being taken from between the cherubim, and
by the hand of one of them given to the ministering angel to be
cast forth upon the city. It was thus indicated so far we can
easily understand the vision that the coming execution of
judgment was not only to be of God, but of Him in connection
with the full consent and obedient service of the holy powers
and agencies around Him. And the still more specific indica
tion might also be meant to be conveyed, that as the best interest
of humanity required the work of judgment to be executed, so a
fitting human instrument should be found for the purpose. The
wrath of God, represented by the coals of fire, should not want
the service of an appropriate earthly agency, as the coals were
ministered by a cherub s hand for the work of destruction.
An entirely similar action, differing only in the form it
assumes, is connected with the cherubim in ch. xv. of Revelation,
where one of the living creatures is represented as giving into
the hands of the angels the seven last vials of the wrath of God.
The rational and living creaturehood of earth, in its state of
alliance and fellowship with God, thus appeared to go along with
the concluding judgments, which were necessary to bring the
evil in the world to a perpetual end. Nor is the earlier and
more prominent action ascribed to them materially different
that connected with the seven-sealed Book. This book, viewed
generally, unquestionably represents the progress and triumph
of Christ s kingdom upon earth over all that was there naturally
opposed to it. The first seal, when opened, presents the Divine
King riding forth in conquering power and majesty ; the last
exhibits all prostrate and silent before Him. The different seals,
therefore, unfold the different stages of this mighty achieve-
THE CHERUBIM. 277
ment ; and as they successively open, each of the living creatures
in turn calls aloud on the symbolic agency to go forth on its
course. That agency, in its fundamental character, represents
the judicial energy and procedure of God toward the sinfulness
of the world, for the purpose of subduing it to Himself, of
establishing righteousness and truth among men, and bringing
the actual state of things on earth into conformity with what is
ideally right and good. Who, then, might more fitly urge for
ward and herald such a work, than the ideal creatures in which
earthly forms of being appeared replete with the life of God,
and in closest contact with His throne ? Such might be said to
be their special interest and business. And hence, as there were
only four of them in the vision (with some reference, perhaps,
to the four corners of the earth), 1 and so one for but the first
four seals of the book, the remaining symbols of this part of the
Apocalyptic imagery were thrown into forms which did not
properly admit of any such proclamation being uttered in con
nection with them. 2
We can discern the same leading characteristics in the
farther use made of the cherubic imagery in the Apocalypse.
They are represented as ceaselessly proclaiming, " Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,"
thereby showing it to be their calling to make known the ab
solute holiness of God, as infinitely removed, not merely from
the natural, but also, and still more, from the moral imperfec
tions and evils of creation. In their ascriptions of praise, too,
they are represented not only as giving honour and glory, but
1 We say only perhaps ; for though Hengstenberg and others lay much
stress upon the number four, as the signature of the earth, yet there being
only two in the tabernacle, would seem to indicate that nothing material
depends on the number. We think that the increase from the original
two to four may, with more probability of truth, be accounted for histori
cally. When the temple was built, two cherubim of immense proportions
were put into the Most Holy Place, and under these were placed the ark
with its old and smaller cherubim : so that there were henceforth actually
four cherubim over the ark. And as the form of Ezekiel s vision, in its
leading elements, was evidently taken from the temple, and John s again
from that, it seems quite natural to account for the four in this way.
2 Compare what is said on this subject in " Prophecy in its Distinctive
Nature," etc., p. 404, 5.
278 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
also thanks, to Him that sitteth on the throne, and as joining
with the elders in the new song that was sung to the Lamb for
the benefits of His salvation. (Rev. iv. 9, v. 8.) So that they
plainly stand related to the redemptive as well as the creative
work of God. And yet in all, from first to last, only ideal
representatives of what pertains to God s kingdom on earth, not
as substantive existences themselves possessing it. They belong
to the imagery of faith, not to her abiding realities. And so,
when the ultimate things of redemption come, their place is no
more found. They hold out the lamp of hope to fallen man
through the wilderness of life, pointing his expectations to the
better country. But when this country breaks upon our view
when the new heavens and the new earth supplant the old,
then also the ideal gives way to the real. We see another
paradise, with its river and tree of life, and a present God, and
a presiding Saviour, and holy angels, and a countless multitude
of redeemed spirits rejoicing in the fulness of blessing and
glory provided for them ; but no sight is anywhere to be seen
of the cherubim of glory. They have fulfilled the end of their
temporary existence ; and when no longer needed, they vanish
like the guiding stars of night before the bright sunshine of
eternal day.
To sum up, then : The cherubim were in their very nature
and design artificial and temporary forms of being uniting in
their composite structure the distinctive features of the highest
kinds of creaturely existence on earth man s first, and chiefly.
They were set up for representations to the eye of faith of
earth s living creaturehood, and more especially of its rational
and immortal, though fallen head, with reference to the better
hopes and destiny in prospect. From the very first they gave
promise of a restored condition to the fallen ; and by the use
afterwards made of them, the light became clearer and more
distinct. By their designations, the positions assigned them,
the actions from time to time ascribed to them, as well as their
own peculiar structure, it was intimated that the good in pro
spect should be secured, not at the expense of, but in perfect
consistence with, the claims of God s righteousness; that re
storation to the holiness must precede restoration to the blessed
ness of life ; and that only by being made capable of dwelling
THE CHERUBIM. 279
beside the presence of the only Wise and Good, could man
hope to have his portion of felicity recovered. But all this,
they further betokened, it was in God s purpose to have accom
plished ; and so to do it, as, at the same time, to raise humanity
to a higher than its original destination in its standing nearer
to God, and greatly ennobled in its powers of life and capacities
of working.
Before passing from the subject of the cherubim, we must
briefly notice some of the leading views that have been enter
tained by others respecting them. These will be found to rest
upon a part merely of the representations of Scripture to the
exclusion of others, and most commonly to a neglect of what we
hold it to be of especial moment to keep prominently in view
the historical use of the cherubim of Scripture. That such
must be the case with an opinion once very prevalent both
among Jews and Christians, and not without its occasional ad
vocates still, 1 which held them to be celestial existences, or more
specifically angels, is obvious at first sight. For, the component
parts of the cherubic appearance being all derived from the
forms of being which have their local habitation on earth, it is
terrestrial, as contradistinguished from celestial objects, which
we are necessitated to think of. And their original position at
the east of Eden would have been inexplicable, as connected
with a religion of hope, if celestial and not earthly natures had
been represented in them. The natural conclusion in that case
must have been, that the way of life was finally lost for man.
In the Apocalypse, too, they are expressly distinguished from
the angels ; and in ch. v. the living creatures and the elders
form one distinct chorus (ver. 8), while the angels form another
(ver. 11). There is more of verisimilitude in another and at
present more prevalent opinion, that the cherubim represent the
Church of the redeemed. This opinion has often been pro
pounded, and quite recently has been set forth in a separate
work on the cherubim. 2 It evidently fails, however, to account
1 Elliott s Horse Apoc. Introd. ; partially adopted also, and especially in
regard to the cherubim of Eden, by Mr Mills in a little work on Sacred
Symbology, p. 136.
2 Doctrine of the Cherubim, by George Smith, F.A.S.
280 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
satisfactorily for their peculiar structure, and is of a too con
crete and specific character to have been represented by such
ideal and shifting formations as the cherubim of Scripture.
These are more naturally conceived to have had to do with
natures than with persons. Besides, it is plainly inconsistent
with the place occupied by the cherubim in the Apocalyptic
vision, where the four and twenty crowned elders obviously
represent the Church of the redeemed. To ascribe the same
office to the cherubim would be to suppose a double and essen
tially different representation of the same object. To avoid
this objection, Vitringa (Obs. Sac. i. 846) modified the idea so
as to make the cherubim in the Revelation (for he supposed
those mentioned in Gen. iii. 24 to have been angels) the re
presentatives of such as hold stations of eminence in the
Church, evangelists and ministers, as the elders were of the
general body of believers. But it is an entirely arbitrary
notion, and destitute of support in the general representations
of Scripture; as, indeed, is virtually admitted by the learned
author, in so peculiarly connecting it with the vision of St
John. An opinion which finds some colour of support only in
a single passage, and loses all appearance of probability when
applied to others, is self-confuted.
It was the opinion of Michaelis, an opinion bearing a vivid
impress of the general character of his mind, that the cherubim
were a sort of " thunder horses " of Jehovah, somewhat similar
to the horses of Jupiter among the Greeks. This idea has so
much of a heathen aspect, and so little to give it even an apparent
countenance in Scripture, that no further notice need be taken
of it. More acceptance on the continent has been found for the
view of Herder, who regards the cherubim as originally feigned
monsters, like the dragons or griffins, which were the fabled
guardians among the ancients of certain precious treasures.
Hence he thinks the cherubim are represented as first of all
appointed to keep watch at the closed gates of paradise ; and for
the same reason were afterwards placed by Moses in the presence-
chamber of God, which the people generally were not permitted
to enter. Latterly, however, he admits they were differently
employed, but more after a poetical fashion, and as creatures of
the imagination. This admission obviously implies that the view
THE CHERUBIM. 281
will not stand an examination with all the passages of Scripture
bearing on the subject. Indeed, we shall not be far wrong if
we say, that it can stand an examination with none of them.
The cherubim were not set up even in Eden as formidable
monsters to fray sinful man from approaching it. They were
not needed for such a purpose, as this was sufficiently effected by
the flaming sword. Nor were they placed at the door, or about
the threshold of the sanctuary, to guard its sanctity, as on that
hypothesis they should have been, but formed a part of the
furniture of its innermost region. And the later notices of the
cherubim in Scripture, which confessedly present them in a
different light, are not by any means independent and arbitrary
representations: they have a close affinity, as we have seen, with
the earlier statements ; and we cannot doubt that the same
fundamental character is to be found in all the representations.
Spencer s idea of the cherubim was of a piece with his views
generally of the institutions of Moses : they were of Egyptian
origin, and were formed in imitation of those monstrous com
pounds which played so prominent a part in the sensuous worship
of that cradle of superstition and idolatry. Such composite
forms, however, were by no means so peculiar to Egypt as
Spencer represents. They were common to heathen antiquity,
and are even understood to have been more frequently used in
the East than in Egypt. Nor is it unworthy of notice, that of
all the monstrous combinations which are mentioned in ancient
writings, and which the more successful investigations of later
times have brought to light from the remains of Egyptian
idolatry, not one has an exact resemblance to the cherub : the
four creature-forms combined in it seem never to have been
so combined in Egypt ; and the only thing approaching to it
yet discovered, is to be found in India. It is quite gratuitous,
therefore, to assert that the cherubim were of Egyptian origin.
But even if similar forms had been found there, it would not
have settled the question, either as to the proper origin or the
real nature of the cherubim. If they were placed in Eden after
the fall, they had a known character and habitation in the world
many centuries before Egypt had a being. And then, whatever
composite images might be found in Egypt or other idolatrous
nations, these, in accordance with the whole character of heathen
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCKIPTURE.
idolatry, which was essentially the deification of nature, must
have been representations of the Godhead itself, as symbolized
by the objects of nature ; while the cherubim are uniformly
represented as separate from God, and as ministers of right
eousness before Him. So well was this understood among the
Israelites, that even in the most idolatrous periods of their
history, the cherubim never appear among the instruments of
their false worship. This separate and creaturely character of
the cherubim is also fatal to the opinion of those who regard
them as " emblematical of the ever-blessed Trinity in covenant
to redeem man," which is, besides, utterly at variance with the
position of the cherubim in the temple ; for how could God be
said to dwell between the ever-blessed Trinity ? l And the same
objections apply to another opinion, closely related to this, accord
ing to which the cherubim represent, not the Godhead person
ally, but the attributes and perfections of God ; are held to be
symbolical personifications of these as manifested in God s works
and ways. This view has been adopted with various modifica
tions by persons of great name, and of very different tendencies
such as Philo, Grotius, Bochart, Rosenmiiller, De Wette;
but it is not supported either by the fundamental nature of the
cherubim or by their historical use. We cannot perceive, indeed,
how the cherubim could really have been regarded as symbols of
the Divine perfections, or personifications of the Divine attri
butes, without falling under the ban of the second command
ment. It would surely have been an incongruity to have
forbidden, in the strongest terms and with the severest penalties,
the making of any likeness of God, and, at the same time, to
have set up certain symbolical images of His perfections in the
very region of His presence, and in immediate contact with His
throne. No corporeal representation could consistently be ad
mitted there of anything but what directly pointed to creaturely
1 It is Parkhurst, and the Hutchinsonian school, who are the patrons of
this ridiculous notion. Horsley makes a most edifying improvement upon
it, with reference to modern times : " The cherub was a compound figure,
the calf (of Jeroboam) single. Jeroboam, therefore, and his subjects were
Unitarians ! " (Works, vol. viii., 241). He forgot, apparently, that there
were four parts in the cherub; so that not a trinity, but a quaternity, would
have been the proper co-relative under the Gospel.
THE CHERUBIM. 283
existences, and their relations and interests. And the nearest
possible connection with God which we can conceive the cheru
bim to have been intended to hold, was that of shadowing forth
how the creatures of His hand, and (originally) the bearers of
His image on earth, might become so replenished with His spirit
of holiness as to be, in a manner, the shrines of His indwelling
and gracious presence.
Biihr, in his Symbolik, approaches more nearly to this view
than any of the preceding ones, and theoretically avoids the
more special objection we have urged against it ; but it is by a
philosophical refinement too delicate, especially without some
accompanying explanation, to catch the apprehension of a com
paratively unlearned and sensuous people. The cherubim, he
conceives, were images of the creation in its highest parts
combining in a concentrated shape the most perfect forms of
creature-life on earth, and, as such, serving as representatives
of all creation. But the powers of life in creation are the signs
and witnesses of those which, without limit or imperfection, are
in God ; and so the relative perfection of life exhibited in the
cherubim symbolized the absolute perfection of life that is in
God His omniscience, His peerless majesty, His creative power,
His unerring wisdom. The cherub was not an image of the
Creator, but it was an image of the Creator s manifested glory.
We repeat, this is far too refined and shadowy a distinction to
lie at the base of a popular religion, and to serve for instruction
to a people surrounded on every hand by the gross forms and
dense atmosphere of idolatry. It could scarcely have failed, in
the circumstances, to lead to the worship of the cherubim, as,
reflectively at least, the worthiest representations of God which
could be conceived by men on earth. But if this evil could
have been obviated, which we can only think of as an insepar
able consequence, there is another and still stronger attaching
to the view, which we may call an inseparable ingredient. For
if the cherubim were representatives of created life, and thence
factitious witnesses of the Creator s glory ; if such were the sum
and substance of what was represented in them, then it was
after all but a symbol of things in nature ; and, unlike all the
other symbols in the religion of the Old Testament, it must
have borne no respect to God s work, and character, and pur-
284 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
poses of grace. That religion was one essentially adapted to the
condition, the necessities, and desires of fallen man ; and the
symbolical forms and institutions belonging to it bear respect to
God s nature and dealings, not so much in connection with the
gifts and properties of creation, as with the principles of right
eousness and the hopes of salvation. If the cherubim are held
to be symbolical only of what is seen of God in nature, they
stand apart from this properly religious province : they have no
real adaptation to the circumstances of a fallen world ; they
have to do simply with creative, not with redemptive manifesta
tions of God ; and so far as they are concerned, the religion of
the Old Testament would after all have been, like the different
forms of heathenism, a mere nature-religion. No further proof
surely is needed of the falseness of the view in question ; for,
in a scheme of worship so wonderfully compact, and skilfully
arranged toward a particular end, the supposition of a hetero
geneous element at the centre is not to be entertained.
We have already referred to the view of Hengstenberg, and
shown its incompatibility to some extent with the scriptural re
presentations. His opinions upon this subject, indeed, appear
to have been somewhat fluctuating. In one of his earlier pro
ductions, his work on the Pentateuch, he expresses his concur
rence with Bahr, and even goes so far as to say, that he regarded
Bahr s treatment of the cherubim as the most successful part of
the Symbolik. Then in his Egypt and the Books of Moses, he
gave utterance to an opinion at variance with the radical idea
of Bahr, that the cherubim had a connection, both in nature
and origin, with the sphinxes of Egypt. And in his work on
the Revelation, he expressly opposes Bahr s view, and holds that
the living forms in the cherubim were merely the representation
of all that is living on the earth. But representing the higher
things on earth, they also naturally serve as representations of
the earth itself ; and God s appearing enthroned above the
cherubim symbolized the truth, that He is the God of the whole
earth, and has everything belonging to it, matter and mind,
subject to His control. As mentioned before, this view, if cor
rect, would have required the position of the cherubim to be
always very distinctly and manifestly below the throne of God ;
which, however, it does not appear to have been, except when
THE CHERUBIM. 285
the manifestation described was primarily for judgment. It
leaves unexplained also the prominence given in the cherubic
delineations to the form and likeness of man, and the circum
stance that the cherubim should, in the Revelation, be nearer to
the throne than the elders placing, according to that view,
the creation, merely as such, nearer than the Church. But the
representation errs, rather as giving a partial and limited view
of the truth, than maintaining what is absolutely contrary to it.
It approaches, in our judgment, much nearer to the right view
than that more recently set forth by Delitzsch, who considers
the cherubim as simply the bearers of Jehovah s chariot, and as
having been placed originally at the eastern gate of Paradise,
as if to carry Him aloft to heaven for the execution of judg
ment, should mankind proceed farther in the course of iniquity.
A conceivable notion certainly ! but leaving rather too much to
the imagination for so early an age, and scarcely taking the
form best fitted for working either on men s fears or hopes ! In
the second edition of his work, published since the preceding
was written, the learned author has somewhat modified his view
of the cherubim. He still regards them as the bearers of Jeho
vah s chariot ; but lays stress chiefly upon the general idea that
they appeared as the jealous guardians of Jehovah s presence
and glory therefore, watchers by way of eminence. As this
view has been already noticed, it does not call for any fresh
consideration.
CHAPTER FOURTH.
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP.
THE symbols to which our attention has hitherto been directed,
were simply ordinances of teaching. They spake in language
not to be mistaken of the righteous character of God, of the
evil of sin, of the moral and physical ruin it had brought upon
the world, of a purpose of grace and a prospect of recovery ;
but they did no more. There were no rites of service associated
with them ; nor of themselves did they call men to embody in
any outward action the knowledge and principles they were the
means of imparting. But religion must have its active services
as well as its teaching ordinances. The one furnish light and
direction, only that the other may be intelligently performed.
And a symbolical religion, if it could even be said to exist, could
certainly not have perpetuated itself, or kept alive the knowledge
of Divine truth in the world, without the regular employment
of one or more symbolical institutions fitted for the suitable
expression of religious ideas and feelings. Now the only thing
of this description which makes its appearance in the earlier
periods of the world s history, and which continued to hold,
through all the after stages of symbolical worship, the paramount
place, is the rite of sacrifice.
We are not told, however, of the actual institution of this
rite in immediate connection with the fall ; and the silence of
inspired history regarding it till Cain and Abel had reached the
season of manhood, and the mention of it then simply as a mat
ter of fact in the narrative of their lives, has given rise to much
disputation concerning the origin of sacrifice whether it was
of Divine appointment, or of human invention ? And if the
latter, to what circumstances in man s condition, or to what
views and feelings naturally arising in his mind, might it owe
its existence ? In the investigation of these questions, a line of
inquiry has not unfrequently been pursued by theologians, more
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 287
befitting the position of philosophical reasoners than of Chris
tian divines. The solution has been sought for chiefly in the
general attributes of human nature, and the practices of a
remote and semi-barbarous heathenism, as if Scripture were en
tirely silent upon the subject till we come far down the stream
of time. Discarding such a mode of conducting the investiga
tion, and looking to the notices of Scripture for our only certain
light upon the subject, we hope, without material difficulty, to
find our way to conclusions on the leading points connected
with it, which may be generally acquiesced in as legitimately
drawn and firmly established.
1. In regard, first of all, to the Divine authority and accept
able nature of worship by sacrifice, which is often mixed up
with the consideration of its origin, Scripture leaves very little
room for controversy. The only debateable ground, as concerns
this aspect of the matter, respects that very limited period of
time which stretches from the fall of Adam to the offerings of
Cain and Abel. From this latter period, verging, too, on the
very commencement of the world s history, we are expressly
informed that sacrifice of one kind had a recognised place in
the worship of God, and met with His acceptance. Not only
did Abel appear before God with a sacrificial offering, but by a
visible token of approval conveyed in all probability through
some action of the cherubim or the flaming sword, near which,
as the seat of the manifested presence of God, the service would
naturally be performed the seal was given of the Divine ac
ceptance and blessing. Thenceforth, at least, sacrifice presented
after the manner of Abel s might be regarded as of Divine
authority. It bore distinctly impressed upon it the warrant and
approbation of Heaven ; and whatever uncertainty might hang
around it during the brief space which intervened between the
fall and the time of Abel s accepted offering, it was from that
time determined to be a mode of worship with which God was
well pleased. We might rather say the mode of worship ; for
sacrifice, accompanied, it is probable, with some words of prayer,
is the only stated act of worship by which believers in the ear
lier ages appear to have given more formal expression to their
faith and hope in God. When it is said of the times of Enos,
the grandson of Adam in the pious line of Seth, that " then
288 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
men began to call upon the name of the Lord/ there can be
little doubt that they did so after the example of Abel, by the
presentation of sacrifice only, as profiting by the fatal result
of his personal dispute with Cain, in a more public and regu
larly concerted manner. It appears to have been then agreed
among the worshippers of Jehovah, what offerings to present,
and how to do so; as, in later times, it is frequently reported of
Abraham and his family, in connection with their having built
an altar, that they then " called upon the name of the Lord."
(Gen. xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxvi. 25.) That sacrifice held the same
place in the instituted worship of God after the deluge, which
it had done before, we learn, first of all, from the case of Noah
the connecting link between the old and new worlds who no
sooner left the ark than he built an altar to the Lord, and offered
burnt-offerings of every clean beast and fowl, from which the
Lord is said to have smelled a sweet savour. In the delineation
given of the earlier patriarchal times in the Book of Job, we
find him not only spoken of as exhibiting his piety in the stated
presentation of burnt-offerings, but also as expressly required by
God to make sacrifice for the atonement of his friends, who had
sinned with their lips in speaking what was not right. And as
we have undoubted testimonies respecting the acceptable charac
ter of the worship performed by Abraham and his chosen seed,
so we learn that in this worship sacrificial offerings played the
principal part, and were even sometimes directly enjoined by
God. (Gen. xv. 9, 10, 17, xxii. 2, 13, xxxv. 1, etc.)
The very latest of these notices in sacred history carry us up
to a period far beyond that to which the authentic annals of any
heathen kingdom reach, while the earliest refer to what occurred
only a few years subsequent to the fall. From the time of
Abel, then, downwards through the whole course of antediluvian
and patriarchal history, it appears that the regular and formal
worship of God mainly consisted in the offering of sacrifice, and
that this was not rendered by a sort of religious venture on the
part of the worshippers, but with the known sanction, and virtual,
if not explicit, appointment of God. As regards the right of
men to draw near to God with such offerings, and their hope of
acceptance at His hands, no shadow of doubt can fairly be said
to rest upon any portion of the field of inquiry, except what may
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 289
relate to the worship of the parents themselves of the human
family.
2. It is well to keep in view the clear and satisfactory de
liverance we obtain on this branch of the subject. And if we
could ascertain definitely what were the views and feelings ex
pressed by the worshippers in the kind of sacrifice which wan
accepted by God, the question of its precise origin would be of
little moment ; since, so recently after the institution of the rite,
we have unequivocal evidence of its being divinely owned and
approved, as actually offered. But it is here that the main
difficulty presents itself, as it is only indirectly we can gather the
precise objects for which the primitive race of worshippers came
before God with sacrificial offerings. The question of their
origin still is of moment for ascertaining this, and at the same
time for determining the virtue possessed by the offerings in the
sight of God. If they arose simply in the devout feelings of the
worshipper, they might have been accepted by God as a natural
and proper form for the expression of these feelings ; but they
could not have borne any typical respect to the higher sacrifice
of Christ, as, in the things of redemption, type and antitype
must be alike of God. And on this point we now proceed to
remark negatively, that the facts already noticed concerning the
first appearance and early history of sacrifice, present insuperable
objections to all the theories which have sought on simply natural
grounds to account for its human origin.
The theory, for example, which has received the suffrage of
many learned men, both in this country and on the Continent, 1
and which attempts to explain the rise of sacrifice by a reference
to the feelings of men when they were in the state of rudest
barbarism, capable of entertaining only the most gross and carnal
ideas of God, and consequently disposed to deal with Him much
as they would have done with a fellow-creature, whose favour
they desired to win by means of gifts, this theory is utterly at
variance with the earlier notices of sacrificial worship. It is
founded upon a sense of the value of property, and of the effect
wont to be produced by gifts of property between man and man,
which could not have been acquired at a period when society as
1 Spencer de Leg. Heb. L. iii., c. 9. So also substantially, Priestly, H.
Taylor, Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, Hofmann, etc.
VOL. I. T
290 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
yet consisted only of a few individuals, and these the members of
a single family. And whether the gift were viewed in the light
of a compensation, a bribe, or a feast (for each in different hands
has had its share in giving a particular shape to the theory), no
sacrifice offered with such a view could have met with the Divine
favour and acceptance. The feeling that prompted it must in
that case have been degrading to God, indeed essentially idola
trous ; and the whole history of patriarchal worship, in which
God always appears to look so benignly on the offerings of be
lieving worshippers, reclaims against the idea.
Of late, however, it has been more commonly sought to ac
count for the origin of sacrifice, by viewing it as a symbolical
act, such as might not unnaturally have suggested itself to men,
in any period of society, from the feelings or practices with
which their personal experience, or the common intercourse of
life, made them familiar. But very different modes of explain
ing the symbol have been resorted to by those who concur in the
same general view of its origination. Omitting the minor shades
of difference which have arisen from an undue regard being had
to distinctively Mosaic elements, Sykes, in his Essay on Sacrifice,
raised his explanation on the ground, that " eating and drinking
together were the known ordinary symbols of friendship, and
were the usual rites of engaging in covenants and leagues." And
in this way some plausible things may doubtless be said of sacri
fice, as it appeared often in the later ages of heathenism, and
also on some special occasions among the covenant people. But
nothing that can seem even a probable account is thereby given
of the offerings presented by believers in the first ages of the
world. For it is against all reason to suppose that such a sym
bol of friendship should then have been in current use, not to
mention that the offerings of that period seem to have been pre
cisely of the class in which no part was eaten by the worshippers
holocausts. Warburton laid the ground more deeply, and with
greater show of probability, when he endeavoured to trace the
origin of sacrifice to the ancient mode of converse by action, to
aid the defects and imperfections of early language, this being,
in his opinion, sufficient to account for men being led to adopt
such a mode of worship, whether the sacrifice might be eucha-
ristical, propitiatory, or expiatory. Gratitude for good bestowed,
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 291
he conceives, would lead the worshipper to present, by an ex
pressive action, the first-fruits of agriculture or pasturage the
eucharistical offering. The desire of the Divine favour or pro
tection in the business of life would, in like manner, dispose him
to dedicate a portion of what was to be sown or propagated
the propitiatory. And for sacrifices of an expiatory kind, the
sense of sin would prompt him to take some chosen animal,
precious to the repenting criminal who deprecated, or supposed
to be obnoxious to the Deity who was to be appeased, and slay
it at the altar, in an action which, in all languages when trans
lated into words, speaks to this purpose : " I confess my trans
gressions at Thy footstool, O my God ; and with the deepest
contrition implore Thy pardon, confessing that I deserve the
death which I inflict on this animal." 1 If for the infliction of
death, which Warburton here represents as the chief feature in
the action of expiatory sacrifice, we substitute the pouring out
of the blood, or simply the giving away of the life to God, there
is no material difference between his view of the origin of such
sacrifices, and that recently propounded by Biihr. This ingenious
and learned writer rejects the idea of sacrifice having come
from any supernatural teaching or special appointment of God,
as this would imply that man needed extraneous help to direct
him, whether he was to sacrifice, or how he was to do it. He
maintains, that "as the idea of God, and its necessary expression,
was not something that came upon humanity from without,
nothing taught it, but something immediate, an original fact ;
so also is sacrifice the form of that expression. From the point
of view at which we are wont to contemplate things, separating
the divine from the natural, the spiritual from the corporeal, this
1 Warburton s Div. Legation, B. ix., c. 2. Davison substantially adopts
this view, with no other difference than that he conceives it unnecessary to
make any account of the defects and imperfections of early language in ex
plaining the origin of sacrifice; but, regarding " representation by action as
gratifying to men who have every gift of eloquence, 1 and as singularly
suited to great purposes of solemnity and impression," he thinks "not simple
adoration, not the naked and unadorned oblations of the tongue, but adora
tion invested in some striking and significative form, and conveyed by the
instrumentality of material tokens, would be most in accordance with the
strong energies of feeling, and the insulated condition of the primitive race."
(Inquiry into the Origin and Intent of Sacrifice, p. 19, 20.)
292 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE,
form must indeed always present a strange appearance. But if
we throw ourselves back on that mode of contemplation which
views the divine and spiritual as inseparable from the natural
and corporeal, we shall find nothing so far out of the way in
man s feeling himself constrained to represent the internal act
of the giving up of his whole life and being to the Godhead
and in that all religion lives and moves through the external
giving away of an animal, perhaps, which he loved as himself, or
on which he himself lived, and which stood in the closest con
nection with his own existence." l Something of a like nature
(though exhibited in a form more obviously liable to objection)
has also received the sanction of Tholuck, who, in the Disserta
tion on Sacrifices, appended to his Commentary on Hebrews,
affirms, that " an offering was originally a gift to the Deity a
gift by which man strives to make up the deficiency of the
always imperfect surrender of himself to God." And in regard
especially to burnt-offerings, he says : " Both objects, that of
thanksgiving and of propitiation, were connected with them :
on the one hand, gratitude required man to surrender what was
external as well as internal to God ; and, on the other hand,
the surrender of an outward good was considered as a substitu
tion, a propitiation for that which was still deficient in the inter
nal surrender." ^ A salvation, it would seem, by works so far,
and only where these failed, a calling in of extraneous and
supplementary resources !
These different modes of explanation are manifestly one in
principle, and are but varying aspects of the same fundamental
view. In each form it lies open to three serious objections, which
together appear to us quite conclusive against it. 1. First, the
analogy of God s method of dealing with His Church in the
matter of Divine worship, at other periods in her history, is op
posed to the simply human theory in any of its forms. Certainly
at no other era did God leave His people altogether to their own
inventions for the discovery of an acceptable mode of approach
ing Him, and of giving expression to their religious feelings.
Some indications He has always given of what in this respect
might be accordant with His mind, and suitable to the position
which His worshippers occupied in His kingdom. The extent to
1 Bahr s Symbolik, B. ii., p. 272. 2 Biblical Cabinet, vol. xxxix., p. 252.
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 293
which this directing influence was carried, formed one of the
leading characteristics of the dispensation brought in by Moses ;
the whole field of religious worship was laid under Divine pre
scription, and guarded against the inventions of men. But
even in the dispensation of the Gospel, which is distinguished for
the spirituality of its nature, and its comparative freedom from
legal enactments and the observance of outward forms, the lead
ing ordinances of Divine worship are indicated with sufficient
plainness, and what has no foundation in the revealed word is
expressly denounced as " will-worship." And if the Church of
the New Testament, witlj all her advantages of a completed
revelation, a son-like freedom, and an unction from the Holy
One, that is said to "teach her all things," was not without some
direction and control in regard to the proper celebration of God s
service, is it conceivable that all should have been left utterly
loose and indeterminate, when men were still in the very infancy
of a fallen condition, and their views of spiritual truth and duty
only in the forming? Where, in that case, would have been
God s jealousy for the purity of His worship ? And where, we
may also ask, His compassion toward men ? He had disclosed to
them purposes of grace, and awakened in their bosoms the hope
of a recovery from the ruin they had incurred ; but to set them
adrift without even pointing to any ordinance fitted to meet their
sense of sin, and reassure their hearts before God, would have
been to leave the exhibition of mercy strangely defective and
incomplete. For while they knew they had to do with a God of
grace and forgiveness, they should still have been in painful un
certainty how to worship and serve Him, so as to get a personal
experience of His blessing, and how, especially when conscience
of sin troubled them anew, they might have the uneasiness
allayed. Never surely was the tenderness of God more needed
to point the way to what was acceptable and right, than in such
a day of small things for the children of hope. And if it had
not been shown, the withholding of it could scarcely seem other
wise than an exception to the general analogy of God s dealings
with men. 2. But, secondly, the simply human theory of the
origin of sacrifice is met by an unresolved, and, on that supposi
tion we are persuaded, an unresolvable difficulty in respect to the
nature of ancient sacrifice. For as the earliest, and indeed the
294 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
only recorded mode of sacrifice in primitive times, among ac
ceptable worshippers of God, consisted in the offering of slain
victims, it seems impossible that this particular form of sacrifice
should have been fallen upon at first, without some special direc
tion from above. Let the symbolical action be viewed in either
of the shades of meaning formerly described, as expressive of
the offerer s deserved death, or of the surrender of his life to
God, or as a propitiatory substitution to compensate for the
conscious defect of such surrender, either way, how could he
have imagined that the devoting to death of a living creature
of God should have been the appropriate mode of expressing
the idea? Death is so familiar to us, as regards the inferior
creation, and so much associated with the means of our support
and comfort, that it might seem a light thing to put an animal
to death for any purpose connected with the wants or even the
convenience of men. But the first members of the human family
were in different circumstances. They must have shrunk un
less divinely authorized from inflicting death on any, and espe
cially on the higher forms of the animal creation ; since death,
in so far as they had themselves to do with it, was the peculiar
expression of God s displeasure on account of sin. All, indeed,
belonging to that creation were to be subject to them. Their
appointment from the very first was to subdue the earth, and
render everything in it subservient to their legitimate use. But
this use did not originally include a right to deprive animals of
their life for the sake of food ; the grant of flesh for that end
was only given at the deluge. And that they should yet have
thought it proper and becoming to shed the blood of animals
merely to express a religious idea, nay, should have regarded that
as so emphatically the appropriate way of worshipping God, that
for ages it seems to have formed the more peculiar medium of
approach to Him, can never be rationally accounted for without
something on the part of God directing them to such a course.
3. Finally, the theories now under consideration are still farther
objectionable, in that they are confronted by a specific fact, which
was evidently recorded for the express purpose of throwing light
on the original worship of fallen man, and with which their
advocates have never been able to reconcile them the fact of
Abel s accepted offering from the flock, as contrasted with the
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 295
rejection of Cain s from the produce of the field. (Gen. iv. ;
Heb. xi. 4.) The offerings of the two brothers differed, we are
told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the account in Genesis
implies as much, not only in regard to the outward oblation
the one being a creature with life, the other without it but also
in the principle which moved the two brothers respectively to
present them. That principle in Abel was faith ; not this, there
fore, but something else, in Cain. And as it was faith which
7 O
both rendered Abel s sacrifice in itself more excellent than Cain s,
and drew down upon it the seal of Heaven s approval, the kind
of faith meant must obviously have been something more than
a mere general belief in the being of God, or His readiness to
accept an offering of service from the hands of men. Faith in
that sense must have been possessed by him who offered amiss, as
well as by him who offered with acceptance. It must have been a
more special exercise of faith which procured the acceptance of
Abel faith having respect not simply to the obligation of ap
proaching God with some kind of offering, but to the duty of doing
so with a sacrifice like that actually rendered, of the flock or the
herd. But whence could such faith have come, if there had not
been a testimony or manifestation of God for it to rest upon, which
the one brother believingly apprehended, and the other scornfully
slighted ? We see no way of evading this conclusion, without
misinterpreting and doing violence to the plain import of the
account of Scripture on the subject. Taking this in its obvious
and natural meaning, Cain is presented to our view as a child of
nature, not of grace as one obeying the impulse and direction
only of reason, and rejecting the more explicit light of faith as to
the kind of service he presented to his Maker. His oblation is an
undoubted specimen of what man could do in his fallen state to
originate proper ideas of God, and give fitting expression to these
in outward acts of worship. But unhappily for the advocates of
nature s sufficiency in the matter, it stands condemned in the in
spired record as a presumptuous and disallowed act of will-wor
ship. Abel, on the other hand, appears as one who through grace
had become a child of faith, and by faith first spiritually discern
ing the mind of God, then reverently following the course it dic
tated, by presenting that more excellent sacrifice (7r\eiova Ova-iav)
of the firstlings of the flock, with which God was well pleased.
296 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
On every account, therefore, the conclusion seems inevitable,
that the institution of sacrifice must have been essentially of
Divine origin ; for though we cannot appeal to any record of its
direct appointment by God, yet there are notices concerning
sacrificial worship which cannot be satisfactorily explained on
the supposition, in any form, of its merely human origin. There
is a recorded fact, however, which touches the very borders of
the subject, and which, we may readily perceive, furnished a
Divine foundation on which a sacrificial worship, such as is men
tioned in Scripture, might be built. It is the fact noticed at the
close of God s interview with our first parents after the fall :
" And unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make
coats of skin, and clothed them." The painful sense of naked
ness that oppressed them after their transgression, was the
natural offspring of a consciousness of sin an instinctive fear
lest the unveiled body should give indication of the evil thoughts
and dispositions which now lodged within. Hence, to get relief
to this uneasy feeling, they made coverings for themselves of
such things as seemed best adapted to the purpose, out of that
vegetable world which had been freely granted for their use.
They girded themselves about with fig-leaves. But they soon
found that this covering proved of little avail to hide their shame,
where most of all they needed to have it hidden ; it left them
miserably exposed to the just condemnation of their offended
God. If a real and valid covering should be obtained, sufficient
to relieve them of all uneasiness, God Himself must provide it.
And so He actually did. As soon as the promise of mercy had
been disclosed to the offenders, and the constitution of mingled
goodness and severity brought in, he made coats to clothe them
with, and these coats of skins. But clothing so obtained argued
the sacrifice of life in the animal that furnished them ; and thus,
through the death of an inferior yet innocent living creature,
was the needed relief brought to their disquieted and fearful
bosoms. The outward and corporeal here manifestly had re
spect to the inward and spiritual. The covering of their naked
ness was a gracious token from the hand of God, that the sin
which had alienated them from Him, and made them conscious
of uneasiness, was henceforth to be in His sight as if it were
not ; so that in covering their flesh, He at the same time covered
SACRIFICIAL WORSUIP. 297
their consciences. If viewed apart from this higher symbolical
aim, the outward act will naturally appear small and unworthy
of God; but so to view it were to dissever it from the very
reason of its performance. It was done purposely to denote the
covering of guilt from the presence of God an act which God
alone could have done. But He did it, as we have seen, by a
medium of death, by a sacrifice of life in those creatures which
men were not yet permitted to kill for purposes of food, and in
connection with a constitution of grace which laid open the
prospect of recovered life and blessing to the fallen. Surely it
is not attributing to the venerable heads of the human family,
persons who had so recently walked with God in paradise, an
incredible power of spiritual discernment, or supposing them to
stretch unduly the spiritual import of this particular action of
God, if we should conceive them turning the Divine act into a
ground of obligation and privilege for themselves, and saying,
Here is Heaven s own finger pointing out the way for obtaining
relief to our guilty consciences ; the covering of our shame is to
be found by means of the skins of irrational creatures, slain in
our behalf ; their life for our lives, their clothing of innocence
for our shame ; and we cannot err, we shall but show our faith
in the mercy and forgiveness we have experienced, if, as often
as the sense of shame and guilt returns upon our consciences,
we follow the footsteps of the Lord, and, by a renewed sacrifice
of life, clothe ourselves anew with His own appointed badge of
acquittal and acceptance.
We are not to be understood as positively affirming that our
first parents and their believing posterity reasoned thus, or that
they actually had no more of instruction to guide them. We
merely say, that they may quite naturally have so reasoned, and
that we have no authority from the inspired record to suppose
that any further instruction was communicated. Indeed, nothing
more seems strictly necessary for the first beginnings of a sacri
ficial worship. And it was still but the age for beginnings ; in
what was taught and done, we should expect to find only the
simplest forms of truth and duty. The Gospel, in its clearer
announcements, even the law with its specific enactments, would
then have been out of place. All that was absolutely required,
and all that might be fairly expected, was some natural and ex-
298 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
press! ve act of God toward men, laying, when thoughtfully con
sidered, the foundation of a religious service toward Him. The
claims of the Sabbatical institution, and of the marriage union,
had a precisely similar foundation the one in God s personal
resting on the seventh day, hallowing and blessing it ; the other
in His formation of the first wife out of the first husband. It
was simply the Divine procedure in these cases which formed the
ground of man s obligations ; because .that procedure was essen
tially a revelation of the mind and will of Godhead for the
guidance of the rational beings who, being made in God s image,
were to find their glory and their well-being in appropriating His
acts, and copying after His example. So here, God s funda
mental act in removing and covering out of sight the shame of
conscious guilt in the first offenders, would both naturally and
rightfully be viewed as a revelation of God, teaching them how,
in henceforth dealing with Him, they were to proceed in effecting
the removal of guilt, and appearing, notwithstanding it, in the
presence of God. They found, in this Divine act, the key to a
justified condition, and an acceptable intercourse with Heaven.
Had they not done so, it would have been incapable of rational
explanation, how a believing Abel should so soon have appeared
in possession of it. Yet it could not have been rendered so
palpable as to obtrude itself on the carnal and unbelieving ;
otherwise it would scarcely be less capable of explanation, how
a self-willed Cain should so soon have ventured to disregard it.
The ground of dissension between the two brothers must have
been of a somewhat narrower and more debateable character,
than if an explicit and formal direction had been given. And
in the Divine act referred to viewed in its proper light, and
taken in connection with the whole circumstances of the time
there was precisely what might have tended to originate both
results : enough of light to instruct the humble heart of faith,
mainly intent on having pardon of sin and peace with God, and
yet not too much to leave proud and unsanctified nature without
an excuse for following a course more agreeable to its own in
clinations. 1
1 Substantially the correct view was presented of this subject in a work
by Dr Croly, though, like several other things in the same volume, attended
with the twofold disadvantage, of not being properly grounded, and of being
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 299
3. We thus hold sacrifice sacrifice in the higher sense, not
as expressive of dependence and thankfulness merely, but as
connected with sin and forgiveness, expiatory sacrifice to have
been, as to its foundation, of Divine origin. It had its rise in an
act of God, done for the express purpose of relieving guilty con
sciences of their sense of shame and confusion ; and from the
earliest periods of recorded worship it stands forth to our view
as the religious solemnity in which faith had its most peculiar
exercise, and for which God bestowed the tokens of His accept
ance and blessing. For the discussion of some collateral points
belonging to the subject, and the disposal of a few objections,
we refer to the Appendix. 1 And we now proceed here briefly
to inquire what sacrifice, as thus originating and thus presented,
symbolically expressed. What feelings on the part of the
worshipper, what truths on the part of God, did it embody?
Partly, indeed, the inquiry has been answered already. It
was impossible to conduct the discussion thus far without indi
cating the leading ideas involved in primitive sacrifice. It must
be remembered, however, that we are still dealing with sacrifice
in its simplest and most elementary form radically, no doubt,
the same as it was under the more complex and detailed arrange-
encumbered with some untenable positions. " God alone is described as in
act, and His only act is that of clothing the two criminals. The whole
passage is but one of many in which a rigid adherence to the text is the
way of safety. The literal meaning at once exalts the rite and illustrates
its purposes. . . . Adam in Paradise has no protection from the Divine
wrath, but he needs none ; he is pure. In his hour of crime, he finds the
fatal difference between good and evil, feels that he requires protection from
the eye of justice, and makes an ineffectual effort to supply that protection
by his own means. But the expedient which cannot be supplied by man,
is finally supplied by the Divine interposition. God clothes him, and his
nakedness is the source of anguish and terror no more. The contrast of the
materials of his imperfect and perfect clothing is equally impressive. Adam,
in his first consciousness of having provoked the Divine displeasure, covers
himself with the frail produce of the ground, the branch and leaf ; but from
the period of forgiveness he is clothed with the substantial product of the
flock, the skin of the slain animal. If circumstances apparently so trivial
as the clothing of our original parents are stated, what other reason can be
assigned, than that they were not trivial, that they formed a marked feature
of the Divine dispensation, and that they were important to be recorded for
the spiritual guidance of man ? (Divine Providence, p. 194-196.)
1 Appendix D.
300 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
ments of the Mosaic ritual, but in comparison of that wanting
much in fulness and variety. As employed by the first race of
believing worshippers, a few leading points are all that it can
properly be regarded as embracing.
(1.) Both from the manner of its origin, and its own essential
nature, as involving in every act of worship the sacrifice of a
creature s life, it bore impressive testimony to the sin fulness of
the offerer s condition. Those who presented it could not but
know that God was far from delighting in blood, and that death,
either in man or beast, was not a thing in which He could be
supposed to take pleasure. The explicit connection of death,
also, with the first transgression, as the proper penalty of sin,
was peculiarly fitted to suggest painful and humiliating thoughts
in the minds of those who stood so near to the awful moment of
the fall. And when death, under God s own directing agency,
was brought so prominently into the Divine service, and every act
of worship, of the more solemn kind, carried in its bosom the
life-blood of an innocent creature, what more striking memorial
could they have had of the evil wrought in their condition by
sin ? With such an element of blood perpetually mingling in
their services, they could not forget that they stood upon the
floor of a broken covenant, and were themselves ever incurring
anew the just desert of transgression.
(2.) Then, looking more particularly to the sanction and
encouragement of God given to such a mode of worshipping
Him, it bespoke their believing conviction of His reconcileable
and gracious disposition toward them, notwithstanding their
sinfulness. They gave here distinct and formal expression to
their faith, that as they needed mercy, so they recognised God
as ready to dispense it to those who humbly sought Him through
this channel of communion. Such a faith, indeed, had been pre
sumption, the groundless conceit of nature s arrogancy or igno
rance, if it had not had a Divine foundation to rest upon, and
tokens of Divine acceptance in the acts of service it rendered.
But these, as we have seen, it plainly had. So that a sacrificial
worship thus performed bore evidence as well to the just expec
tations of mercy and forgiveness on the part of those who pre
sented it, as to their uneasy sense of guilt and shame prompting
them to do so.
SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 301
(3.) But, looking again to the original ground and authority
of this sacrificial worship, the act of God in graciously covering
the shame and guilt of sin, and to the seal of acceptance after
wards set so peculiarly and emphatically on it, the great truth
was expressed by it, on the part of God, that the taking away of
life stood essentially connected with the taking away of sin ; or,
as expressed in later Scripture, that a without shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins." In accordance with the general
character of the primeval constitution of things, this truth comes
out, not as a formal enunciation of principle, or an authoritative
enactment of Heaven, but as an embodied fact ; a fact, in the
first instance, of God s hand, significantly indicating His mind
and will, and then believingly contemplated, acted upon, sub
stantially re-enacted by His sincere worshippers, with His clearly
marked approval. The form may be regarded as peculiar, but
not so the truth enshrined in it. This is common to all times,
and, after holding a primary place in every phase of a prepara
tory religion, it rose at last to a position of transcendent import
ance in the work and kingdom of Christ. How far Adam and
his immediate descendants might be able to descry, under their
imperfect forms of worship, and the accompanying intimations
of recovery, the ultimate ground in this respect of faith and hope
for sinful men, can be to us only matter of vague conjecture
or doubtful speculation. Their views would, perhaps, consider
ably differ, according as their faith was more or less clear in its
discernment, more or less lively in its perceptions of the truth
couched under the symbolical acts and revelations of God. But
unless more specific information was given them than is found
in the sacred record (and we have no warrant to suppose there
was more), the anticipations formed even by the most enlightened
of those primitive believers, regarding the way and manner in
which the blood of sacrifice was ultimately to enter into the plan
of God, must have been comparatively vague and indefinite.
(4.) For us, however, who can read the symbol before us by
the clear light of the Gospel, and from the high vantage-ground
of a finished redemption can look back upon the temporary in
stitutions that foreshadowed it, there is neither darkness nor
uncertainty respecting the prophetic import of the primeval rite
of sacrifice. We perceive there in the germ the fundamental
302 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
truth of that scheme of grace which was to provide for the com
plete and final restoration of a seed of hlessing the truth of a
suffering Mediator, giving His life a ransom for many. Here
again we behold the ends of revelation mutually embracing and
contributing to throw light on each other. And as amid the
perfected glories of Messiah s kingdom all appears clustering
around the Lamb that was slain, and doing homage to Him for
His matchless humiliation and triumphant victory, so the earliest
worship of believing humanity points to His coming sacrifice as
the one ground of hope and security to the fallen. At a subse
quent period, when believers were furnished with a fuller revela
tion and a more complicated worship, symbolical representations
were given of many other and subordinate parts of the work of
redemption. But when that worship existed in its simplest form,
and embodied only the first elements of the truth, it was meet
that what was ultimately to form the groundwork of the whole,
should have been alone distinctly represented. And we shall not
profit, as we should, by the contemplation of that one rite which
stands so prominently out in the original worship of the believ
ing portion of mankind, if it does not tend to deepen upon our
minds the incomparable worth and importance of a crucified
Redeemer, as the wisdom and power of God unto salvation.
CHAPTER FIFTH.
THE MARRIAGE RELATION AND THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION.
THE two ordinances of marriage and the Sabbath are here
coupled together, as having so much in common, that they
alike belonged to the primeval constitution of things, and were
alike intended, without any formal alteration, to transmit their
validity to times subsequent to the fall. They carried an
import, and involved obligations, which should be co-extensive
with the generations of mankind. Yet with this general agree
ment there is a specific difference, which is of moment as re
gards the point of view from which the subjects must here be
contemplated. The formation of a partner for Adam out of
a portion of his own frame, and the junction of the two under
the direct sanction of their Maker, so as to form in a manner
one flesh, however important in a social and economical respect,
however fitted also to bear indirectly on the higher interests
of the world, was still not formally of a religious nature. For
the world s secular well-being alone there were reasons amply
sufficient to account for its Divine author resorting to such a
method, when bringing into being the first family pair, and in
them laying the foundations of the world s social existence.
For it was by an instructive and appropriate act, entwined
with the very beginnings of social life on earth, that the essen
tial conditions were to be exhibited if exhibited so as to tell
with permanent effect of its right constitution and healthful
working. And so far from being, as some have alleged, an
unbecoming representation of the Divine character, a lowering
of the Divine Majesty, that Eve should have been said to be
formed out of Adam s side, and thereafter presented to him as
his own flesh and bone, on account of which they would tum
the whole narrative into a myth, it will be found, when duly
considered and viewed in the light of the important interests
depending on it, every way worthy of the wise foresight and
304 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
paternal goodness of Deity. He has thus interwoven with the
closing act of creation an imperishable moral lesson, made it,
indeed, the perpetual and impressive symbol of the great truth,
that the fundamental relation in family life was to consist in
the union of one man and one woman ; and these so bound
together as that, while distinctions as to authority and power
on the one side, and subordination and dependence on the other,
should exist between them, they should still be regarded as a
social unity corporate manhood. So far from the Divine pro
cedure in this violating our sense of the fitting and proper, or
doing more than the circumstances of the case required, the
records of history were not long in furnishing mournful evi
dence that it proved all too little to secure the end in view ; it
failed to perpetuate the intended unity and good order of
families. Even among the chosen people, the practical infer
ence drawn from it with instinctive sagacity and true spiritual
insight by the first Adam. (" Therefore shall a man leave father
and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one
flesh," Gen. ii. 24), came to be so much lost sight of, that it
required to be announced afresh, and with sterner authority
imposed, by the second Adam (Matt. xix. 5, 6).
The Scriptural evidence for the deep significance of the
Divine act in respect to the formation of Eve, and the nature
of the marriage union founded on it, is both explicit and
ample. But in the circumstances of the parents themselves of
the human family, and also of those of their posterity who lived
in the earlier ages of the world, it could scarcely have occurred
to them to carry that significance into any sphere beyond that
of the family life. Nothing in the prospect as yet held out to
them of a restored condition, was fitted to give their ideas so
definite a shape as to suggest a spiritual relationship formed
after the model of this natural one ; and in the religion of patri
archal, or even much later times, scarcely anything is found
that bears this specific impress. As the result of God s fuller
manifestation of Himself and closer intimacy with His people
in the wilderness, a kind of marriage union indeed is implied
to have sprung up between them, since their defection from
His service is represented under the light of an adultery or
whoredom (Num. xiv. 33), a style of representation which
THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 305
became of frequent occurrence in the writings of the later pro
phets (Isa. Ivii. 3 ; Jer. iii. 9, xiii. 27 ; Ezek. xvi., xxiii. ; Hos.
i., ii., etc.). In one or two passages also the Lord expressly
takes to Himself th name of the husband of Israel, or speaks
of Himself as having been married to them (Isa. liv. 5 ; Jer. iii.
14). In the Book of Canticles this relation even forms the
scene of a kind of spiritual drama ; and in the 45th Psalm the
hero of the piece, the King of Zion, is even represented as
standing formally related to a queen who shares with Him in
the honours of the kingdom, and by whom can only be under
stood the true Israel of God. It is not to be denied, however,
that this series of Old Testament representations took its formal
rise in the covenant engagement entered into at Sinai, and
merely availed itself of the marriage-bond as one peculiarly
adapted for portraying the obligations and advantages con
nected with fidelity to the engagement, or the guilt and folly
of the reverse. In none of the passages does there seem any
distinct reference to the primeval union in Eden ; and rather
as a fitting emblem, than a type in the proper sense, is the
marriage relation in such cases employed much as also the
relations of a pastor to his flock (Ps. xxiii. ; Ezek. xxxvi. ; Zech.
xi.), of a husbandman to his vineyard (Ps. Ixxx. ; Isa. v. 1-7;
Ezek. xv.), or of a king to his subjects (1 Sam. viii. 7 ; Ps. ii. ?
etc.).
We are not, therefore, disposed to connect with the religious
worship or hopes which came in after the fall, any distinct refer
ence to the marriage relation, viewed as growing out of Eve s
derivation from Adam, and subjection to him. In that particular
form, and as an ideal pattern for the nourishment of faith and
hope, it belongs to New rather than Old Testament times the
times, namely, when the Lord from heaven stands distinctly re
vealed in the character of the second Adam. As such, He also
must have His spouse, and has it in part now ; but shall have it
in completeness hereafter, in the company of faithful souls who
have been washed from their sins in His blood the elect
Church, which in all its members grows out of His root, lives
by His life, and is called at once to share in His glory, and as
an handmaid to minister to His will. So that the mystery
of the primeval spouse ( a bone of Adam s bone, flesh of his
VOL. I. U
306 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
flesh ") may justly be regarded as the mystery of the Church
in her relation to Christ (Eph. v. 30-32 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; Kev.
xix. 7, xxi. 2). But in this special aspect of the matter, an
aspect that belongs to creation rather than to strictly historical
times, it must be allowed to stand in some respects apart from
the typical relations with which we have now properly to deal,
and which all in a greater or less degree contributed to mould
the religious viexvs and feelings of fallen men.
It is otherwise in the respects now mentioned with the Sab
batical institution, which also belongs to the primeval constitu
tion of things. This at once bore a directly religious aspect, and
pointed to the future as well as the present. The record given
of it tells us that " on the seventh day God ended His work
which He had made ; and He rested on the seventh day from
all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh
day, and sanctified it ; because that in it He had rested from all
His work which God created and made" (Gen. ii. 2, 3). This
procedure of God appears in such immediate contact with the
work of creation (for in that respect the passage admits but of
one fair interpretation), that the bearing it was intended to have
on man s views and obligations must primarily have had respect
to his original destination ; and if designed to lay the foundation
of a stated order, this must have been one perfectly suited to the
paradisiacal state. Yet a slight reflection might have sufficed
to convince any thoughtful mind, that whatever significance it
might have for the occupants of such a state, that could not be
lost, but must even have been deepened and increased, by the
circumstances of their fall from it.
In the procedure itself of God there may be noted a three
fold stage, each carrying a distinct and important meaning.
First, the rest itself : " He rested on the seventh day from all
His wprk ;" and in Ex. xxxi. 17, the yet stronger expression
is used, of God s refreshing Himself on that day. Figurative
language this must, no doubt, be understood to be, for " the
Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary,"
that being rendered impossible by the infinitude of His perfec
tions, yet it is not the less expressive of a great truth, and one
just as cognizable by man as the acts of creative energy by
which it was preceded. What was it, indeed, but the proper
THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION. 307
complement of creation the immediate result at which it aimed,
and in which, when realized, there was set the seal of Heaven
on its beauty and completeness ? The glorious Creator is pre
sented to our view at the close of His six days work, brought
at length to its proper consummation in man, as clothed with
the Divine image, and charged with the oversight and develop
ment of the territory assigned him, surveying His own work
manship, looking with complacence on the product of His hands,
taking it, as it were, to His bosom, and in the freshness of its
joy and the prospect of its goodly order finding satisfaction to
Himself. How near does not this show God to be to His crea
tures in particular to the rational and upright portion of them ?
And must there not have been on their part the response of an
intelligent appreciation and living fellowship ? Must not man,
endowed as he was with God s likeness, and crowned with glory
and honour as God s representative, here also have communion
with his Maker ? How could he fail to do so ? As it was his
calling to enter into God s work to take it up, as it were, where
God left it, and carry it forward to its proper results ; so it was
his privilege to enter into God s rest making this in a sense
his own, and thereby rendering earth the reflex of heaven. It
was for this end that God disclosed His manner of distinguish
ing the seventh day from those which preceded, viz., to teach
His earthly representative to go and do likewise ; so that this
day so kept might be an ever-recurring memorial and sign, both
how man s ordinary work should form a continuation and image
of God s, and man s rest be a conscious appropriation and enjoy
ment of that blessed satisfaction and repose with which God
was Himself refreshed.
But this was not left to be simply inferred ; for if even the
first stage of this Divine act has respect to man, still more has
the second, which points directly and exclusively to him : " And
God blessed the seventh day." This blessing of the day is not
to be confounded with the sanctifying of it, which immediately
follows, as if the meaning were, God blessed it by sanctifying
it. The blessing is distinct from the sanctification, and is, so to
speak, the settling of a special dowry on it for every one, who
should give due heed to its proper end and object. Let man
the Divine act of blessing virtually said only enter into God s
308 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
mind, and tread in His footsteps, by resting every seventh day
from his works, and he shall undoubtedly find it to his profit ;
the blessing, which is life for evermore, shall descend on him.
What he may lose for the moment in productive employment,
shall be amply compensated by the refreshment it will bring to
his frame by the enlargement and elevation of his soul above
all, by the spiritual fellowship and interest in God which be
comes the abiding portion of those who follow Him in their
ways, and perpetually return to Him as the supreme rest of
their souls.
Then, the last stage in the procedure of God on this occa
sion, indicates how the two earlier ones were to be secured :
" He sanctified it," set it sacredly apart from the others. Having
appointed it to a distinctive end, he conferred on it a distinctive
character, that His creature, man, might from time to time be
doing in his line of things what the Creator had already done
in His own might, after six successive days of work, take one
to reinvigorate his frame, to reflect calmly on the past, and
view the part he has taken and the relations he occupies on the
outward and visible theatre of the world, in the light of the spi
ritual and the eternal. It was to be his calling and his destiny
on earth, not simply to work, but to work as a reasonable and
moral being, after the example of his Maker, for specific ends.
And for this he needed seasons of quiet repose and thoughtful
consideration, not less than time and opportunity for active
labour ; as, otherwise, he could neither properly enjoy the work
of his hands, nor obtain for the higher part of his nature that
nobler good which is required to satisfy it. God, therefore,
when He had finished the work of creation by making man,
sanctified the seventh day His oiun seventh, but mans first ;
for man had not first to work and then to reap, but as God s
vicegerent, nature s king and high-priest, could at once enter
into his Maker s heritage of blessing. And henceforth, in the
career that lay before him, ever and anon returning from the
field of active labour assigned him in cultivating and subduing
the earth, he must on the hallowed day of rest gather in his
thoughts and desires from the world, and, retiring into God as
his sanctuary, hold with Him a sabbatism of peaceful and
blessed communion.
THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION. 309
The Divine procedure, then, in every one of its stages, plainly
points to man, and aims at his participation in the likeness and
enjoyment of God. " With the Sabbath," says Sartorius hap
pily, and we rejoice and hail it as a token for good, that such
thoughts on the Sabbath are finding utterance in the high places
of Germany " with the Sabbath begins the sacred history of
man the day on which he stood forth to bless God, and, in
company with Eve, entered on his Divine calling upon earth.
The creation without the creation-festival, the world s unrest
without rest in God, is altogether vain and transitory. The
sacred day appointed, blessed, consecrated by God, is that from
which the blessing and sanctification of the world and time, of
human life and human society, proceed. Nor is anything more
needed than the recognition of its original appointment and
sacred destination, for our receiving the full impression of its
sanctity. How was it possible for the first man ever to forget
it ? From the very beginning was it written upon his heart,
Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it." 1 There is nothing
new in such views. Substantially the same interpretation that
we have given is put on the original notice in Genesis, in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. iv.), where the record of God s rest
at the close of creation is referred to as the first form of the
promise made to man of entering into, God s rest. The record,
then, of what God in that respect did, was a revelation. It em
bodied a call and a promise to man of high fellowship with the
Creator in His peculiar felicity, and, consequently, inferred an
obligation on man s part both to seek the end proposed, and to
seek it in the method of God s appointment. But did the obli
gation cease when man fell ? or was the promise cancelled ?
Assuredly not not, at least, after the time that the introduction
of an economy of grace laid open for the fallen the prospect of
a new inheritance in God. So far from having lost its signifi
cance or its value, the Creator s Sabbatism then acquired fresh
meaning and importance, and became so peculiarly adapted to
the altered condition of the world, that we cannot but regard it
as having from the first contemplated the physical and moral
evils that were to issue from the fall. In the language of
Hcngstenberg, with whom we gladly concur on this branch of
1 Sartorius uber den alt und neu-Test. cultus, p. 17.
310 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURK,
the subject, though on too many others we shall be constrained
to differ from him, "It presupposes work, and such work as
has a tendency to draw us away from God. It is the remedy
for the injuries we are apt to incur through this work. If any
thing is clear, it is the connection between the Sabbath arid the
fall. The work which needs intermission, lest the divine life
should be imperilled by it, is not [we would rather say, is not
so much] the cheerful and pleasant employment of which we
read in Gen. ii. 15 ; it is [rather] the oppressive and degrading
toil spoken of in Gen. iii. 19, work done in the sweat of the
brow, upon a soil that brings forth thorns and thistles." 1 We
would put the statement comparatively rather than absolutely ;
for the rest of God being held on the first seventh day of the
world s existence, and the day being immediately consecrated
and blessed, it must have had respect to the place and occupa
tion of man even in paradise. Why should work there be sup
posed to have differed in kind from work elsewhere and since ?
There could be room only for a difference in degree ; and being
work from its very nature that led the soul to aim at specific
objects, and put forth continuous efforts on what is outward, it
required to be met by a stated periodical institution, that would
recall the thoughts and feelings of the soul more within itself.
Man s perfection in that original state was only a relative one.
It needed certain correctives and stimulants to secure the con
tinued enjoyment of the good belonging to it. It needed, in
particular, perpetual access to the tree of life for the preserva
tion of the bodily, and an ever-returning Sabbatism for that of
the spiritual life. But if such a Sabbatism was required even
for man s well-being in paradise, where the work was so light,
and the order so beautiful, how could it be imagined that the
Sabbatical institution might be either safely or lawfully disre
garded in a world of sorrow, temptation, and hardship ?
Was there really, however, any Sabbatical institution? There
is no command respecting it in this portion of the inspired record.
And may not the mention there made of God s keeping the
Sabbath, and blessing and sanctifying the day, have been made
simply with a prospective reference to the precept that was ulti
mately to be imposed on the Israelites 1 So it has been alleged
1 TJeber den Tag des Herrn, p. 12.
THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION. 311
with endless frequency by those who can find no revelation of
the Divine will, and no obligation or moral duty excepting what
comes in the authoritative form of a command ; and it is still
substantially reiterated by Hengstenberg, who certainly cannot
be charged with such a bluntness of spiritual discernment. We
meet the allegation with the statement that has already been
repeatedly urged that it was not yet the time for the formal
enactments of law, and that it was by other means man was to
learn God s mind and his own duty. The ground of obligation
lay in the Divine act ; the rule of duty was exhibited in the
Divine example : for these were disclosed to men from the first,
not to gratify an idle curiosity, but for the express purpose of
leading them to know and do what is agreeable to the will of
God. If such means were not sufficient to speak with clearness
and authority to men s consciences, then it may be affirmed that
the first race of mankind were free from all authoritative direc
tion and control whatever. They were not imperatively bound
either to fear God or to regard man ; for, excepting in the man
ner now stated, no general obligations of service were laid on
them. But to suppose this ; to suppose, even in regard to what
is written of the original Sabbatism of God, that it did not bear
directly upon the privileges and duties of the very first members
of the human family, is in truth to make void that portion of
revelation to treat it as if, where it stands, it were a superfluity
or a blemish. We cannot so regard it. We hold by the truth
fulness and natural import of the Divine record. And doing
this, we are shut up to the conclusion, that it was at first de
signed and appointed by God, that mankind should sanctify
every returning seventh day, as a season of comparative rest
from worldly labour, of spiritual contemplation and religious
employment, that so they might cease from their own works and
enter into the rest of God.
But we shall not pursue the subject farther at present. We
even leaye unnoticed some of the objections that have been
raised against the existence of a primeval Sabbath, as the sub
ject must again return, and in a more controversial aspect, when
we come to consider the place assigned to the law of the Sabbath
in the revelation from Sinai. It is enough, at this stage of our
inquiry, to have exhibited the foundation laid for the perpetual
312 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
celebration of a seventh-day Sabbath, in the original act of God
at the close of His creation work. In that we have a founda
tion broad and large as the theatre of creation itself and the
general interests of humanity, free from all local restrictions
and national peculiarities. That in the infancy of the world,
and during the ages of a remote antiquity, there would be
much simplicity in the mode of its observance, may readily be
supposed. Indeed, where all was so simple, both in the state
of society and the institutions of worship, the symbolical act
itself of resting from ordinary work, and in connection with
that, the habit of recognising the authority of God, and realiz
ing the Divine call to a participation in the blessed rest of the
Creator, must have constituted no inconsiderable part of the
practical observance of the day. And that this also in process
of time should have fallen into general desuetude, is only what
might have been expected from the fearful depravity and law
lessness which overspread the earth as a desolation. When
men daringly cast off the fear of God Himself, they would
naturally make light of the privilege and duty set before them
of entering into His rest. And considering how partial and
imperfect the observance of the day, in the earlier periods of the
world s history, was likely to become, it is not to be wondered
at, that, beside the original record of its Divine origin and autho
ritative obligation, traces of its existence should be found only
in some scattered notices of history, and in the wide-spread
sacredness of the number seven, which has left its impress on
the religion and literature of nearly every nation of antiquity.
But however neglected or despised, the original fact remains for
the light and instruction of the world in all ages ; and there
perpetually comes forth from it a call to every one who has ears
to hear, to sanctify a weekly rest unto the Lord, and rise to the
enjoyment of His blessing.
CHAPTER SIXTH.
TYPICAL THINGS IN HISTORY DURING THE PROGRESS OF
THE FIRST DISPENSATION.
HAVING now considered the typical bearing of the fundamental
facts and symbolical institutions belonging to the first dispensa
tion of grace, it remains that we endeavour to ascertain what
there might afterwards be evolved of a typical nature during
the progress of that dispensation, by means of the transactions
and events that took place under it. These, it was already
noted in our preliminary remarks, could only be employed to
administer instruction of a subsidiary kind. In their remoter
reference to Gospel times, as in their direct historical aspect,
they can rank no higher than progressive developments not
laying a foundation, but proceeding on the foundation already
laid, and giving to some of the points connected with it a more
specific direction, or supplementing them with additional dis
coveries of the mind and will of God. It is impossible here,
any more than in the subjects treated of in the preceding chap
ters, to isolate entirely the portions that have a typical bearing
from others closely connected with them. And even in those
which exhibit something of the typical element, it can scarcely
be expected, at so early a period in the world s history, to possess
much of a precise and definite character; for in type, as in
prophecy, the progress must necessarily have been from the
more general to the more particular. In tracing this progress,
we shall naturally connect the successive developments with
single persons or circumstances ; yet without meaning thereby
to indicate that these are in every respect to be accounted typical.
SECTION FIRST.
THE SEED OF PROMISE ABEL, ENOCH.
THE first distinct appearance of the typical in connection with
the period subsequent to the fall, is to be found in the case of
Abel ; but in that quite generally. Abel was the first member
of the promised seed ; and through him supplementary know
ledge was imparted more especially in one direction, viz., in
regard to the principle of election, which was to prevail in the
actual fulfilment of the original promise. That promise itself,
when viewed in connection with the instituted symbols of re
ligion, might be perceived if very thoughtfully considered to
have implied something of an elective process ; but the truth
was not clearly expressed. And it was most natural that the
first parents of the human family should have overlooked what
but obscurely intimated a limitation in the expected good.
They would readily imagine, when a scheme of grace was intro
duced, which gave promise of a complete destruction of the
adversary, with the infliction only of a partial injury on the
woman s seed, that the whole of their offspring should attain to
victory over the power of evil. This joyous anticipation affect-
ingly discovers itself in the exclamation of Eve at the birth of
her first-born son, "I have gotten a man from (or, as it should
rather be, with) the Lord" gratefully acknowledging the hand
of God in giving her, as she thought, the commencement of
that seed which was assured through Divine grace of a final
triumph. This she reckoned a real getting gain in the proper
sense calling her child by a name that expressed this idea
(Cain) ; and she evidently did so by regarding it as the precious
gift of God, the beginning and the pledge of the ascendency
that was to be won over the malice of the tempter. 1 Never was
1 I think it quite impossible, in the circumstances, that the faith of Eve
should have gone farther than this, as the promise of recovery had as yet
assumed only the most general aspect ; and though it might well have been
understood to depend upon the grace and power of God for its accomplish-
THE SEED OF PROMISE. 315
mother destined to receive a sorer disappointment. She did not
want faith in the Divine word, but her faith was still without
knowledge, and she must learn by painful experience how the
plan of God for man s recovery was to be wrought out. A like
ignorance, though tending now in the opposite direction, again
discovers itself at the birth of Abel, whose name (breath, empti
ness) seems, as Delitzsch has remarked, to have proceeded from
her felt regard to the Divine curse, as that given to Cain did
from a like regard to the Divine promise. It is possible that,
between the births of the two brothers, what she had seen of the
helpless and suffering condition of infancy in the first-born may
have impressed the mind of Eve with such a sense of the evils
entailed upon her offspring by the curse, as to have rendered
her for the time forgetful of the better things disclosed in the
O D
promise. It is also possible, and every way probable, that the
name by which this child is known to history, and which is not,
as in the case of Cain, expressly connected with his birth, may
have been occasioned by his unhappy fate, and expressed the
feelings of vexation and disappointment which it awakened in
the bosoms of his parents. However it might be, the result at
least showed how little the operations of grace were to pursue
the course that might seem accordant with the views and feelings
of nature. In particular, it showed that, so far from the whole
ment, yet who, from the revelations actually given, could have anticipated
these to manifest themselves in the birth of Jehovah Himself as a babe ?
The supposition of Baumgarten, who here revives the old explanation, u I
have gotten a man, Jehovah," that Eve thought she saw in Cain " the
redeeming and coming God," is arbitrary and incredible. The n liT Dtf
should be taken as in ch. v. 24, vi. 9, xliii. 1C ; Judg. i. 16, with, in fellow
ship with, the Lord ; or, as in Judg. viii. 7, with, icifh the help of. The
former idea seems to be the more natural one, as in that sense also the DX
is more frequently used. The assertion of Dr Pye Smith (Testimony, vol. i.,
p. 228), that there " seems no option to an interpreter, who is resolved to
follow the fair and strict grammatical signification of the words before him,
but to translate the passage, 1 have obtained a man, Jehovah," is greatly
too strong, and against the judgment of the best Hebrew scholars. He is
himself obliged to repudiate the sense which such a rendering yields, as
embodying too gross a conception ; and the idea which he thinks Eve
meant to express of "something connected with the Divine Being" in the
child produced, is simply what is conveyed by the perfectly legitimate ren
dering we have preferred.
316 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
offspring of the woman being included, there was from the first
to pervade the Divine plan a principle of election, in virtue of
which a portion only, and that by no means the likeliest, accord
ing to the estimation of nature, were to inherit the blessing;
while the rest should fall in with the designs of the tempter,
and be reckoned to him for a seed of cursing. Abel, therefore,
in his acceptance with God, in his faith respecting the Divine
purposes, and his presentation of offerings that drew down the
Divine favour, stands as the type of an elect seed of blessing
a seed that was ultimately to have its root and its culmination
in Him who was to be peculiarly the child of promise. In
Cain, on the other hand, the impersonation of nature s pride,
waywardness, and depravity, there appeared a representative
of that unhappy portion of mankind who should espouse the
interest of the adversary, and seek by unhallowed means to
establish it in the world.
The brief notices of antediluvian history are evidently framed
for the purpose of exhibiting the antagonistic state and ten
dencies of these two seeds, and of rendering manifest the mighty
difference which God s work of grace was destined to make in
the character and prospects of man. The name given by Eve
to her third son (Seth, appointed), with the reason assigned for
it, " For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead
of Abel, whom Cain slew," bespoke the insight the common
mother of mankind had now obtained into this mournful division
in her offspring. Cain she regards as having, in a manner,
ceased to belong to her seed ; he had become too plainly identi
fied with that of the adversary. He seems now to her view to
stand at the head of a God-opposing interest in the world ; and
as in contrast to him, the destroyer of the true seed, God is seen
mercifully providing another in its room. 1 So that there were
1 It is to be noted, however, that both the parents of the human family,
Adam as well as Eve, are associated with this seed of blessing. It is a cir
cumstance that has been too much overlooked ; but for the very purpose of
marking it, a fresh commencement is made at Gen. v. of the genealogical
chain that links together Adam and Christ : " This is the book of the gene
rations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God
made He him. . . . And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and
begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth : "
as if his progeny before this were not to be reckoned the child of grace
THE SEED OF PROMISE. 317
again the two seeds in the world, eacli taking root, and bringing
forth fruit after its kind. But how different! On the one
hand appears the Cainite section, smitten with the curse of sin,
yet proudly shunning the path of reconciliation retiring to a
distance from the emblems of God s manifested presence build
ing a city, as if to lighten, by the aid of human artifice and pro
tection, the evils of a guilty conscience and a blighted condition
cultivating with success the varied elements of natural strength
and worldly greatness, inventing instruments of music and
weapons of war, trampling under foot, as seemed good to the
flesh, the authority of heaven and the rights of men, and at
last, by deeds of titanic prowess and violence, boldly attempting
to bring heaven and earth alike under its sway. (Gen. iv.
13-24, vi. 4-6. ) l On the other hand appears the woman s seed
had perished, and the other in a spiritual sense was not. Adam, therefore,
is here distinctly placed at the head of a spiritual offspring himself, with
his partner, the first link in the grand chain of blessing. And the likeness
in which he begat his son u his own image " must not be limited, as it
too often is, to the corruption that now marred the purity of his nature as
if his image stood simply in contrast to God s. It is as the parental head of
the whole lineage of believers that he is represented, and such a sharp con
trast would here especially be out of place.
1 It is in connection with this later development of evil in the Cainites
that Lamech s song is introduced, and with special reference to that portion
of his family who were makers of instruments in brass and iron instru
ments, no doubt, chiefly of a warlike kind. It is only by viewing the song
in that connection that we perceive its full meaning and its proper place,
as intended to indicate that the evil was approaching its final stage : " And
Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ; ye wives of
Lamech, hearken to my speech : for men (the word is quite indefinite in
the original, and may most fitly be rendered in the plural) I slay for my
wound, and young men for my hurt : for Cain is avenged seven times,
and Lumech seventy times seven." He means apparently, that, with
such weapons as he now had at command, he could execute at will deeds
of retaliation and revenge. So that his song may be regarded, to use the
words of Drechsler, " as an ode of triumph on the invention of the sword.
He stands at the top of the Cainite development, from thence looks back
upon the past, and exults at the height it has reached. How far has he got
ahead of Cain ! what another sort of ancestor he ! No longer needing to
look up in feebleness to God for protection, he can provide more amply for
it himself than God did for Cain s ; and he congratulates his wives on being
the mothers of silch sons. Thus the history of the Cainites began with a
deed of murder, and here it ends with a song of murder."
318 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
of promise, seeking to establish and propagate itself in the earth
by the fear of God, and the more regular celebration of His
worship (Gen. iv. 26), trusting for its support in the grace and
blessing of God, as the other did in the powers and achievements
of corrupt nature ; and so continuing uninterrupted its line of
godly descendants, yet against such fearful odds, and at last
with such a perilous risk of utter extinction, that Divine faith
fulness and love required to meet violence with violence, and
bring the conflict in its first form to a close by the sweeping
desolation of the flood. It terminated, as every such conflict
must do, on the side of those who stood in the promised grace
and revealed testimony of God. These alone live for ever ; and
the triumph of all that is opposed to them can be but for a
moment.
This seed of the woman, however, the seed that she pro
duces in faith upon the promise of God, and in which the grace
of God takes vital effect, is found, not only as to its existence,
to be associated with a principle of election, but also as to the
relative place occupied by particular members in its line. All
have by faith an interest in God, and in consequence triumph
over the power of the adversary. But some have a larger interest
than others, and attain to a higher victory. There was an elec
tion within the election. So it appeared especially in the case
of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and again in Noah, who, as
they alone of the antediluvians were endowed with the spirit of
prophecy, so they alone, also, are said to have "walked with
God" (Gen. v. 22, vi. 9), an expression never used of any
who lived in later times, and denoting the nearest and most
confidential intercourse, as if they had all but regained the old
paradisiacal freedom of communion with Heaven. And as the
Divine seal upon this higher elevation of the life of God in their
souls, they were both honoured with singular tokens of distinc
tion the one having been taken, without tasting of death, to
still nearer fellowship with God, to abide in His immediate
presence (" He was not, for God took him "), while the other
became under God the saviour and father of a new world. Of
the latter we shall have occasion to speak separately, as there
were connected with his case other elements of a typical nature.
But in regard to Enoch, as the short and pregnant notice of his
THE SEED OF PROMISE. 319
life and of his removal out of it, plainly indicates something
transcendently good and great, so, we cannot doubt, the contem
poraries of the patriarch knew it to be such. They knew at
least they had within their reach the means of knowing that in
consideration of his eminent piety, and of the circumstances of
the time in which he lived, he was taken direct to a higher
sphere, without undergoing the common lot of mortality. That
there should have been but one such case during the whole
antediluvian period, could not but be regarded as indicating its
exceptional character, and stamping it the more emphatically as
a revelation from Heaven. Nor could the voice it uttered in
the ears of reflecting men sound otherwise than as a proclama
tion that God was assuredly with that portion of the woman s
seed who served and honoured Him that He manifested Him
self to such, as a chosen people, in another manner than He did
to the world, and made them sure of a complete and final victory
over all the malice of the tempter and the evils of sin. If not
usually without death, yet notwithstanding it, and through it,
they should certainly attain to eternal life in the presence of
God.
In this respect Enoch as being the most distinguished mem
ber of the seed of blessing in its earlier division, and the most
honoured heir of that life which comes through the righteous
ness of faith is undoubtedly to be viewed as a type of Christ.
Something he had in common with the line as a whole he was
a partaker of that electing grace and love of God, in virtue of
which alone any could rise from the condemnation of sin to the
inheritance of life in the Divine kingdom. But apart from
others in the same line, and above them, he passed to the in
heritance by a more direct and triumphant path a conqueror
in the very mode of his transition from time to eternity. These
characteristics, which in Enoch s case were broadly marked,
though in themselves somewhat general and incapable of being
understood to have reference to a personal Messiah, till such a
Messiah had been more distinctly announced, are yet pre-emi
nently the characteristics of Christ, and in the full and absolute
sense could be found only in Him. He is, as no other indi
vidual among men could be, the seed of the woman, considered
as the seed of promise, destined by God s purpose of grace to
320 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
bruise the head of the tempter, and reverse the process of
nature s corruption. In Him, as present from the first to the
" determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," was the
ultimate root of such a seed to be found which should otherwise
have had no existence in the world. He therefore, beyond all
others, was the chosen of God, " His elect in whom His soul
delights." And though to the eye of a carnal and superficial
world, which judges only by the appearance, He wanted what
seemed necessary to justify His claim to such a position, yet He
in reality gave the clearest proof of it, by a faith that never
faltered in the hardest trials, a righteousness free from every
stain of impurity, and a life that could only underlie for a
moment the cloud of death, but even then could see no corrup
tion, and presently rose, as to its proper home, in the regions of
eternal light and glory.
With our eyes resting on this exalted object in the ends of
time, we have no difficulty in perceiving, that what appeared of
supernatural in such men as Abel and Enoch, only foreshadowed
the higher and greater good that was to come. The foreshadow
ing, however, was not such that from the appearance of Abel
and Enoch a personal Messiah could have been descried, or as if,
from the incidents in their respective lives, precisely similar ones
might have been inferred as likely to happen in the eventful
career of the man Christ Jesus. We could not descend thus to
individual and personal marks of coincidence between the lives of
those early patriarchs and the life of Messiah, without, in the first
instance, anticipating the order of Providence, which had not yet
directed the eye of faith and hope to a personal manifestation
of Godhead, and then entangling ourselves in endless difficulties
of practical adjustment as in the case of Enoch s translation,
who went to heaven without tasting death, while Christ could
not enter into glory till He had tasted it. But let those patriarchs
be contemplated as the earlier links of a chain which, from its
very nature, must have some higher and nobler termination ; let
them be viewed as characters that already bore upon them the
lineaments and possessed the beginnings of the new creation :
what do they then appear but embodied prophecies of a more
general kind in respect to " Him who was to come ? " They
heralded His future redemptive work by exhibiting in part the
THE SEED OF PROMISE. 321
signs and fruits of its prospective achievements. The beginning
was prophetic of the end ; for if the one had not been in pro
spect, the other could not have come into existence. And in
their selection by God from the general mass around them, their
faith in God s word, and their possession of God s favour and
blessing, as outwardly displayed and manifested in their his
tories, we see struggling, as it were, into being the first elements
of that new state and destiny, which were only to find their
valid reason, and reach their proper elevation, in the person and
kingdom of Messiah.
VOL. I.
SECTION SECOND.
NOAH AND THE DELUGE.
THE case of Noah, we have already stated, embodied some new
elements of a typical kind, which gave to it the character of a
distinct stage in the development of God s work of grace in the
world. It did so in connection with the deluge, which had a
gracious as well as a judicial aspect, and, by a striking combina
tion of opposites, brought prominently out the principle, that
the accomplishment of salvation necessarily carries along with it a
work of destruction. This was not absolutely a new principle at
the period of the deluge. It had a place in the original promise,
and a certain exemplification in the lives of believers from the
first. By giving to the prospect of recovery the peculiar form
of a bruising of the tempter s head, the Lord plainly intimated,
that somehow a work of destruction was to go along with the
work of salvation, and was necessary to its accomplishment. No
indication, however, was given of the way in which this twofold
process was to proceed, or of the nature of the connection be
tween the one part of it and the other. But light to a certain
extent soon began to be thrown upon it by the consciousness in
each man s bosom of a struggle between the evil and the good,
a struggle which so early as the time of Cain drew forth the
solemn warning, that either his better part must vindicate for
itself the superiority, or it must itself fall down vanquished by
the destroyer. Still farther light appeared, when the contend
ing elements grew into two great contending parties, which by
an ever-widening breach, and at length by most serious en
croachments from the evil on the good, rendered a work of
judgment from above necessary to the peace and safety of the
believing portion of mankind. The conviction of some ap
proaching crisis of this nature had become so deep in the time of
Enoch, that it gave utterance to itself in the prophecy ascribed
in the Epistle of Jude to that patriarch : " Behold, the Lord
NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 323
cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment
upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed,
and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have com
mitted against Him." The struggle, it was thus announced,
should ere long end in a manifestation of God for judgment
against the apostate faction, and by implication for deliverance
to the children of faith and hope.
By the period of Noah s birth, however, the necessity of a
Divine interposition had become much greater, and it appeared
manifest to the small remnant of believers that the era of retri
bution, which they now identified with the era of deliverance,
must be at hand. Indication was then given of this state of
feeling by the name itself of Noah, with the reason assigned for
its adoption, " This same shall comfort us concerning our work
and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord
hath cursed." The feeling is too generally expressed, to enable
us to determine with accuracy how the parents of this child
might expect their troubles to be relieved through his instru
mentality. But in their words we hear, at least, the groaning
of the oppressed the sighing of righteous souls, vexed on ac
count of the evils which were thickening around them, from the
unrestrained wickedness of those who had corrupted the earth ;
and, at the same time, not despairing, but looking up in faith,
and even confident that in the lifetime of that child the God of
righteousness and truth would somehow avenge the cause of His
elect. Whether they had obtained any correct insight or not
into the way by which the object was to be accomplished, the
event proved that the spirit of prophecy breathed in their an
ticipation. Their faith rested upon solid grounds, and in the
hope which it led them to cherish they were not disappointed.
Salvation did come in connection with the person of Noah, and
it came in the way of an overwhelming visitation of wrath upon
the adversaries.
When we look simply at the outward results produced by
that remarkable visitation, they appear to have been twofold
on the one side preservation, on the other destruction. But
when we look a little more closely, we perceive that there was a
necessary connection between the two results, and that there was
324 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
properly but one object aimed at in the dispensation, though in
accomplishing it there was required the operation of a double pro
cess. That object was, in the words of St Peter, " the saving
of Noah and his house " (1 Pet. iii. 20) saving them as the
spiritual seed of God. But saving them from what? Not
surely from the violence and desolation of the waters ; for the
watery element would then have acted as the preservative against
itself, and instead of being saved by the water, according to the
apostolic statement, the family of Noah would have been saved
from it. 1 From what, then, were they saved? Undoubtedly
from that which, before the coming of the deluge, formed the
real element of danger the corruption, enmity, and violence of
ungodly men. It was this which wasted the Church of God,
and brought it to the verge of destruction. All was ready to
perish. The cause of righteousness had at length but one
efficient representative in the person of Noah ; and he much
" like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, like a besieged city,"
the object of profane mockery and scorn, taunted, reviled,
plied with every weapon fitted to overcome his constancy, and,
if not in himself, at least in his family, in danger of suffering
shipwreck amid the swelling waves of wickedness around him.
It was to save him and with him, the cause of God from this
source of imminent danger and perdition, that the flood was
1 1 am aware many eminent scholars give a different turn to this ex
pression in the first Epistle of Peter, and take the proper rendering to be,
" saved through (i.e., in the midst of) the Avater " contemplating the water
as the space or region through which the ark was required to bear Noah and
his family in safety. So Beza, who says that "the water cannot be taken
for the instrumental cause, as Noah was preserved from the water, not by
it ; " so also Tittmann, Bib. Cab., vol. xviii., p. 251 ; Steiger in his Comm.,
with only a minute shade of difference ; Robinson, in Lex., and many
others. But this view is open to the following objections : 1. The water is
here mentioned, not in respect to its several parts, or to the extent of its
territory from one point to another, but simply as an instrumental agent.
Had the former been meant, the expression would have been, "saved through
the waters," rather than saved by water. But as the case stood, it mattered
nothing whether the ark remained stationary at one point on the surface
of the waters, or was borne from one place to another ; so that through, in
the sense of passing through, or through among, gives a quite unsuitable
meaning. That Noah needed to be saved from the water, rather than by it,
is a superficial objection, proceeding on the supposition that the water had
NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 325
sent ; and it could only do so by effectually separating between
him and the seed of evil-doers engulphing them in ruin, and
sustaining him uninjured in his temporary home. So that the
deluge, considered as Noah s baptism, or the means of his sal
vation from an outward form of spiritual danger, was not less
essentially connected with a work of judgment than with an act
of mercy. It was by the one that the other was accomplished ;
and the support of the ark on the bosom of the waters was only
a collateral object of the deluge. The direct and immediate
object was the extermination of that wicked race, whose heaven-
daring impiety and hopeless impenitence was the real danger
that menaced the cause and people of God, " the destroying of
those (to use the language that evidently refers to it in Rev. xi.
18) who destroyed the earth."
This principle of salvation with destruction, which found
such a striking exemplification in the deluge, has been continu
ally appearing anew in the history of God s dealings among
men. It appeared, for example, at the period of Israel s re
demption from Egypt, when a way of escape was opened for
the people of God by the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host ;
and again at the era of the return from Babylon, when the
destruction of the enemy and the oppressor broke asunder the
bands with which the children of the covenant were held cap-
the same relation to Noah that it had to the world in general. For him,
the water and the ark were essentially connected together ; it took both to
make up the means of deliverance. In the same sense, and on the same
account, we might say of the Red Sea, that the Israelites were saved by it ;
for though in itself a source of danger, yet, as regarded Israel s position, it
was really the means of safety (1 Cor. x. 2). 2. The application made by
the Apostle of Noah s preservation requires the agency of the water as well
as of the ark to be taken into account. Indeed, according to the best au
thorities (which read o xai), the reference in the antitype is specially to the
water as the type. But apart from that, baptism is spoken of as a saving,
in consequence of its being a purifying ordinance, which implies, as in the
deluge, that the salvation be accomplished through means of a destruction.
This is virtually admitted by Steiger, who, though he adopts the rendering
" through the water," yet in explaining the connection between the type
and the antitype, is obliged to regard the water as also instrumental to sal
vation. " The flood was for Noah a baptism, and as such saved ; the same
element, water, also saves us now not, however, as mere water, but in the
same quality as a baptism."
326 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
live. But it is in New Testament times, and in connection
with the work of Christ, that the higher manifestation of the
principle appears. Here alone perfection can be said to belong
to it. Complete as the work in one respect was in the days of
Noah, in another it soon gave unmistakeable evidence of its
own imperfection. The immediate danger was averted by the
destruction of the wicked in the waters of a deluge, and the
safe preservation of Noah and his family as a better seed to
replenish the depopulated earth. But it was soon found that
the old leaven still lurked in the bosom of the preserved rem
nant itself ; and another race of apostates and destroyers,
though of a less ferocious spirit, and under more of restraint
in regard to deeds of violence and bloodshed, rose up to pro
secute anew the work of the adversary. In Christ, however,
the very foundations of evil from the first were struck at, and
nothing is left for a second beginning to the cause of iniquity.
He came, as foretold by the prophet Isaiah (ch. Ixi. 2), "to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of
vengeance of our God," which was, at the same time, to be the
" year of His redeemed." And, accordingly, by the work He
accomplished on earth, " the prince of this world was judged
and cast out " (John xii. 31) ; or, as it is again written,
"principalities and powers were spoiled," and "he that had
the power of death destroyed" (Col. ii. 15; Heb. ii. 14),
thereby giving deliverance to those who were subject to sin
and death. He did this once for all, when He fulfilled all
righteousness, and suffered unto death for sin. The victory
over the tempter then achieved by Christ no more needs to be
repeated than the atonement made for human guilt ; it needs
to be appropriated merely by His followers, and made effectual
in their experience. Satan has no longer any right to exercise
lordship over men, and hold them in bondage to his usurped
authority; the ground of his power and dominion is taken
away, because the condemnation of sin, on which it stood, has
been for ever abolished. Christ, therefore, at once destroys
and saves saves by destroying casts the cruel oppressor down
from his ill-gotten supremacy, and so relieves the poor, en
thralled, devil-possessed nature of man, and sets it into the
glorious liberty of God s children.
NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 327
In the case of the Redeemer Himself, this work is ab
solutely complete; the man Christ Jesus thoroughly bruised
Satan under His feet, and won a position where in no respect
whatever He could be any more subject to the power of evil.
Theoretically, we may say, the work is also complete in behalf
of His people ; on His part, no imperfection cleaves to it. By
virtue of the blood of Jesus, the house of our humanity, which
naturally stood accursed of God, and was ready to be assailed
by every form of evil, is placed on a new and better foundation.
It is made holiness to the Lord. The handwriting of con
demnation that was against us is blotted out. The adversary
has lost his bill of indictment ; and nothing remains but that
the members of the human family should, each for themselves,
take up the position secured for them by the salvation of Christ,
to render them wholly and for ever superior to the dominion of
the adversary. But it is here that imperfection still comes in.
Men will not lay hold of the advantage obtained for them by
the all-prevailing might and energy of Jesus, or they will but
partially receive into their experience the benefits it provides
for them. Yet there is a measure of success also here, in the
case of all genuine believers. And it is to this branch of the
subject more immediately that the Apostle Peter points, when
he represents Christian baptism as the antitype of the deluge.
In the personal experience of believers, as symbolized in that
ordinance, there is a re-enacting substantially of what took
place in the outward theatre of the world by means of the
deluge. "The like figure whereunto (literally, the antitype to
which, viz., Noah s salvation by water in the ark) even baptism
doth also now save us ; not the putting away of the filth of the
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. iii. 21.) Like the
Apostle s delineations generally, the passage briefly indicates,
rather than explicitly unfolds, the truths connected with the
subject. Yet, on a slight consideration of it, we readily per
ceive, that, with profound discernment, it elicits from the ordi
nance of baptism, as spiritually understood and applied, the
same fundamental elements, discovers there the same twofold
process, which appeared so strikingly in the case of Noah.
Here also there is a salvation reaching its accomplishment by
328 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
means of a destruction " not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh" not so superficial a riddance of evil, but one of a
more important and vital character, bringing " the answer of a
good conscience," or the deliverance of the soul from the guilt
and power of iniquity. The water of baptism let the subject
be plunged in it ever so deep, or sprinkled ever so much can
no more of itself save him than the water of the deluge could
have saved Noah, apart from the faith he possessed, and the
preparation it led him to make in constructing and entering into
the ark. It was because he held and exercised such faith, that
the deluge brought salvation to Noah, while it overwhelmed
others in destruction. So is it in baptism, when received in a
spirit of faith. There is in this also the putting off of the old
man of corruption crucifying it together with Christ, and at
the same time a rising through the resurrection of Christ to the
new and heavenly life, which satisfies the demands of a pure and
enlightened conscience. So that the really baptized soul is one
in which there has been a killing and a making alive, a breaking
up and destroying of the root of corrupt nature, and planting in
its stead the seed of a divine nature, to spring, and grow, and
bring forth fruit to perfection. In the microcosm of the indi
vidual believer, there is the perishing of an old world of sin and
death, and the establishment of a new world of righteousness
and life everlasting.
Such is the proper idea of Christian baptism, and such
would be the practical result were the idea fully realized in the
experience of the baptized. But this is so far from being the
case, that even the idea is apt to suffer in people s minds from
the conscious imperfections of their experience. And it might
help to check such a tendency it might, at least, be of service
in enabling them to keep themselves well informed as to what
should be, if they looked occasionally to what actually was, in
the outward pattern of these spiritual things, given in the times
of Noah. Are you disinclined, we might say to them, to have
the axe so unsparingly applied to the old man of corruption 1
Think, for your warning, how God spared not the old world,
but sent its mass of impurity headlong into the gulph of perdi
tion. Seems it a task too formidable, and likely to prove hope
less in the accomplishment, to maintain your ground against the
NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 329
powers of evil in the world ? Think again, for your encourage
ment, how impotent the giants of wickedness were of old to
defeat the counsels of God, or prevail over those who held fast
their confidence in His word ; with all their numbers and their
might, they sunk like lead in the waters, while the little house
hold of faith rode secure in the midst of them. Or does it
appear strange, at times perhaps incredible, to your mind, that
you should be made the subject of a work which requires for its
accomplishment the peculiar perfections of Godhead, while others
are left entire strangers to it, and even find the word of God
the chosen instrument for effecting it the occasion of wrath
and condemnation to their souls ? Remember " the few, the
eight souls" of Noah s family, alone preserved amid the wreck
and desolation of a whole world preserved, too, by faith in a
word of God, which carried in its bosom the doom of myriads
of their fellow-creatures, and so, finding that which was to
others a minister of condemnation, a source of peace and safety
to them. Rest assured, that as God Himself remains the same
through all generations, so His work for the good of men is
essentially the same also ; and it ever must be His design and
purpose, that Noah s faith and salvation should be perpetually
renewing themselves in the hidden life and experience of those
who are preparing for the habitations of glory.
SECTION THIRD.
THE NEW WORLD AND ITS INHERITORS THE MEN OF FAITH.
IN one respect the world seemed to have suffered material loss
by the visitation of the deluge. Along with the agents and
instruments of evil, there had also been swept away by it the
emblems of grace and hope paradise with its tree of life and
its cherubim of glory. We can conceive Noah and his house
hold, when they first left the ark, looking around with melan
choly feelings on the position they now occupied, not only as
being the sole survivors of a numerous offspring, but also as
being themselves bereft of the sacred memorials which bore
evidence of a happy past, and exhibited the pledge of a yet
happier future. An important link of communion with heaven,
it might well have seemed, was broken by the change thus
brought through the deluge on the world. But the loss was
soon fully compensated, and, we may even .say, more than com
pensated, by the advantages conferred on Noah and his seed
from the higher relation to which they were now raised in re
spect to God and the world. There are three points that here,
in particular, call for attention.
1. The first is, the new condition of the earth itself, which
immediately appears in the freedom allowed and practised in
regard to the external worship of God. This was no longer
confined to any single region, as seems to have been the case in
the age subsequent to the fall. The cherubim were located in
a particular spot, on the east of the garden of Eden ; and as
the symbols of God s presence were there, it was only natural
that the celebration of Divine worship should there also have
found its common centre. Hence the two sons of Adam are
said to have " brought their offerings unto the Lord" which
can scarcely be understood otherwise than as pointing to that
particular locality which was hallowed by visible symbols of the
Lord s presence, and in the neighbourhood of which life and
THE NEW WORLD AND ITS INHERITORS. 331
blessing still lingered. In like manner, it is said of Cain, after
he had assumed the attitude of rebellion, that " he went out
from the presence of the Lord," obviously implying that there
was a certain region with which the Divine presence was con
sidered to be more peculiarly connected, and which can be
thought of nowhere else than in that sanctuary on the east of
Eden. But with the flood the reason for any such restriction
vanished. Noah, therefore, reared his altar, and presented his
sacrifice to the Lord where the ark rested. There immediately
he got the blessing, and entered into covenant with God
proving that, in a sense, old things had passed away, and all
had become new. The earth had risen in the Divine reckoning
to a higher condition ; it had passed through the baptism of
water, and was now, in a manner, cleansed from defilement ; so
that every place had become sacred, and might be regarded as
suitable for the most solemn acts of worship. 1
This more sacred and elevated position of the earth after
the deluge appears, farther, in the express repeal of the curse
originally laid upon the ground for the sin of Adam : " I will
not again curse the ground any more for man s sake" (Gen.
viii. 21), was the word of God to Noah, ori accepting the first
offering presented to Him in the purified earth. It is, no
doubt, to be understood relatively ; not as indicating a total
1 If we are right as to the centralization of the primitive worship of
mankind (and it seems to be only the natural inference from the notices
referred to), then the antediluvian population cannot well be supposed to
have been of vast extent, or to have wandered to a very great distance from
the original centre. The employment also of a special agency after the
flood to disperse the descendants of Noah, and scatter them over the earth,
seems to indicate, that an indisposition to go to a distance, a tendency to
crowd too much about one locality, was one of the sources of evil in the
first stage of the world s history, the recurrence of which well deserved to
be prevented, even by miraculous interference ; and it is perfectly conceiv
able, indeed most likely, that the tower of Babel, in connection with which
this interference took place, was not intended to be a palladium of idolatry,
or a mere freak of ambitious folly, but rather a sort of substitution for the
loss of the Edenic symbols, and, as such, a centre of union for the human
family. It follows, of course, from the same considerations, that the deluge
might not absolutely require, so far as the race of man was concerned, to
extend over more than a comparatively limited portion of the earth. But
its actual compass is not thereby determined.
332 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
repeal of the evil, but only a mitigation of it ; yet such a miti
gation as would render the earth a much less afflicted and more
fertile region than it had been before. But this again indicated
that, in the estimation of Heaven, the earth had now assumed a
new position; that by the action of God s judgment upon it, it
had become hallowed in His sight, and was in a condition to
receive tokens of the Divine favour, which had formerly been
withheld from it.
2. The second point to be noticed here, is the heirship given
of this new world to Noah and his seed given to them expressly
as the children of faith.
Adam, at his creation, was constituted the lord of this world,
and had kingly power and authority given him to subdue it
and rule over it. But on the occasion of his fall, this grant,
though not formally recalled, suffered a capital abridgment ;
since he was sent forth from Eden as a discrowned monarch,
to do the part simply of a labourer on the surface of the earth,
and with the discouraging assurance that it should reluctantly
yield to him of its fruitfulness. Nor, when he afterwards so
distinctly identified himself with God s promise and purpose of
grace, by appearing as the head only of that portion of his seed
who had faith in God, did there seem any alleviation of the
evil : the curse that rested on the ground, rested on it still,
even for the seed of blessing (Gen. v. 29) ; and not they, but
the ungodly Camites, acquired in it the ascendency of physical
force and political dominion.
A change, however, appears in the relative position of
things, when the flood had swept with its purifying waters over
the earth. Man now rises, in the person of Noah, to a higher
place in the world ; yet not simply as man, but as a child of
God, standing in faith. His faith had saved him, amid the
general wreck of the old world, to become in the new a second
head of mankind, and an inheritor of earth s domain, as now
purged and rescued from the pollution of evil. " He is made
heir," as it is written in Hebrews, " of the righteousness which
is by faith," heir, that is, of all that properly belongs to such
righteousness, not merely of the righteousness itself, but also of
the world, which in the Divine purpose it was destined to pos
sess and occupy. Hence, as if there had been a new creation,
THE NEW WORLD AND ITS INHERITORS. 333
and a new head brought in to exercise over it the right of
sovereignty, the original blessing and grant to Adam are sub
stantially renewed to Noah and his family : " And God blessed
Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth. And the fear of you, and the dread
of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every
fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon
all the fishes of the sea : into your hand are they delivered."
Here, then, the righteousness of faith received direct from the
grace of God the dowry that had been originally bestowed upon
the righteousness of nature not a blessing merely, but a bless
ing coupled with the heirship and dominion of the world.
There was nothing strange or arbitrary in such a proceed
ing ; it was in perfect accordance with the great principles of
the Divine administration. Adam was too closely connected
with the sin that destroyed the world, to be reinvested, even when
he had through faith become a partaker of grace, with the
restored heirship of the world. Nor had the world itself passed
through such an ordeal of purification, as to fit it, in the per
sonal lifetime of Adam, or of his more immediate offspring, for
being at all represented in the light of an inheritance of blessing.
The renewed title to the heirship of its fulness was properly
reserved to the time when, by the great act of Divine judgment
at the deluge, it had passed into a new condition ; and when
one was found of the woman s seed, who had attained in a
peculiar degree to the righteousness of faith, and along with the
world had undergone a process of salvation. It was precisely
such a person that should have been chosen as the first type of
the righteousness of faith, in respect to its world-wide heritage
of blessing. And having been raised to this higher position,
an additional sacredness was thrown around him and his seed :
the fear of them was to be put into the inferior creatures ;
their life was to be avenged of every one that should wrongfully
take it ; even the life-blood of irrational animals was to be held
sacred, because of its having something in common with man s,
while their flesh was now freely surrendered to their use ; the
whole evidently fitted, and, we cannot doubt, also intended to
convey the idea, that man had by the special gift of God s grace
been again constituted heir and lord of the world, that, in the
334 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
words of the Psalmist, "the earth had been given to the children
of men," and given in a larger and fuller sense than had been
done since the period of the fall. 1
3. The remaining point to be noticed in respect to this new
order of things, is the pledge of continuance, notwithstanding
all appearances or threatenings to the contrary, given in the
covenant made with Noah, and confirmed by a fixed sign in the
heavens. " And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with
him, saying, And I, behold, I establish My covenant with you,
and with your seed after you ; and with every living creature
that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast
of the earth with you ; from all that go out of the ark, to every
beast of the earth. And I will establish My covenant with you :
neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a
flood ; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the
earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which
I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is
with you, for perpetual generations : I do set My bow in the
cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant" (more exactly :
My bow I have set in the cloud, and it shall be for a covenant-
sign) " between Me and the earth. And it shall come to pass,
when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen
in the cloud : and I will remember My covenant, which is
between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh ; and
the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."
(Gen. ix. 8-15.)
There can be no doubt that the natural impression produced
1 It presents no contrariety to this, when rightly considered, that the
Lord should also have connected His purpose of preserving the earth in
future with the corruption of man : " And the Lord smelled a sweet savour
(viz., from Noah s sacrifice); and the Lord said in His heart, I will not
again curse the ground any more for man s sake ; for the imagination of
man s heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. viii. 21.) The meaning is, that
God delighted so much more in the offerings of righteousness than in the
inflictions of judgment, that He would now direct His providence so as
more effectually to secure the former would not allow the imaginations of
man s evil heart to get such scope as they had done before ; but, perceiving
and remembering their native existence in the heart, would bring such
remedial influences into operation that the extremity of the past should not
again return.
THE NEW WORLD AND ITS INHERITORS. 335
by this passage in respect to the sign of the covenant, is, that
it now for the first time appeared in the lower heavens. The
Lord might, no doubt, then, or at any future time, have taken
an existing phenomenon in nature, and by a special appointment
made it the instrument of conveying some new and higher
meaning to the subjects of His revelation. But in a matter
like the present, when the specific object contemplated was to
allay men s fears of the possible recurrence of the deluge, and
give them a kind of visible pledge in nature for the permanence
of her existing order and constitution, one cannot perceive how
a natural phenomenon, common alike to the antediluvian and
the postdiluvian world, could have fitly served the purpose. In
that case, so far as the external sign was concerned, matters
stood precisely where they were ; and it was not properly the
sign, but the covenant itself, which formed the guarantee of
safety for the future. We incline, therefore, to the opinion
that, in the announcement here made, intimation is given of a
change in the physical relations or temperature of at least that
portion of the earth where the original inhabitants had their
abode ; by reason of which the descent of moisture in showers
of rain came to take the place of distillation by dew, or other
modes of operation different from the present. The supposition
is favoured by the mention only of dew before in connection
with the moistening of the ground (Gen. ii. 6) ; and when rain
does come to be mentioned, it is rain in such flowing torrents as
seems rather to betoken the outpouring of a continuous stream,
than the gentle dropping which we are wont to understand by
the term, and to associate with the rainbow.
The fitness of the rainbow in other respects to serve as a sign
of the covenant made with Noah, is all that could be desired.
There is an exact correspondence between the natural phenome
non it presents, and the moral use to which it is applied. The
promise in the covenant was not that there should be no future
visitations of judgment upon the earth, but that they should not
proceed to the extent of again destroying the world. In the
moral, as in the natural sphere, there might still be congregating
vapours and descending torrents; indeed, the terms of the
covenant imply that there should be such, and that by means
of them God would not fail to testify His displeasure against
336 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
sin, and keep in awe the workers of iniquity. But there should
be no second deluge to diffuse universal ruin; mercy should
always so far rejoice against judgment. Such in the field
of nature is the assurance given by the rainbow, which is
formed by the lustre of the sun s rays shining on the dark cloud
as it recedes; so that it may be termed, as in the somewhat
poetical description of Lange, "the sun s triumph over the
floods ; the glitter of his beams imprinted on the rain-cloud as
a mark of subjection." How appropriate an emblem of that
grace which should always show itself ready to return after
wrath ! Grace still sparing and preserving, even when storms of
judgment have been bursting forth upon the guilty ! And as
the rainbow throws its radiant arch over the expanse between
heaven and earth, uniting the two together again as with a
wreath of beauty, after they have been engaged in an elemental
war, what a fitting image does it present to the thoughtful eye
of the essential harmony that still subsists between the higher
and the lower spheres ! Such undoubtedly is its symbolic
import, as the sign peculiarly connected with the covenant of
Noah ; it holds out, by means of its very form and nature, an
assurance of God s mercy, as engaged to keep perpetually in
check the floods of deserved wrath, and continue to the world
the manifestation of His grace and goodness. Such also is the
import attached to it, when forming a part of prophetic imagery
in the visions of Ezekiel (ch. i. 28) and of St John (Kev. iv.
3) ; it is the symbol of grace, as ever ready to return after
judgment, and to stay the evil from proceeding so far as to
accomplish a complete destruction. 1
Yet gracious as this covenant with Noah was, and appropriate
and beautiful the sign that ratified it, all bore on it still the
stamp of imperfection ; there was an indication and a prelude
of the better things needed to make man truly and permanently
blessed, not these things themselves. For what was this new
1 Far too general is the explanation often given of the symbolic import
of the rainbow by writers on such topics as when it is described to be " in
general a symbol of God s willingness to receive men into favour again "
(Wemyss Clavis Symbolica), or that "it indicates the faithfulness of the
Almighty in fulfilling the promises that He has made to His people." (Mill s
Sacred Symbology.) Sound Christian feeling, with something of a poetic
THE NEW WORLD AND ITS INHERITORS. 337
world, which had its perpetuity secured, and over which Noah
was set to reign, as heir of the righteousness that is by faith ?
To Noah himself, and each one in succession of his seed, it was
still a region of corruption and death. It had been sanctified,
indeed, by the judgment of God, and as thus sanctified it was
not to perish again as it had done before. But this sanctification
was only by water enough to sweep away into the gulf of per
dition the mass of impurity that festered on its surface, but not
penetrating inwards, to the elements of evil which were bound
up with its very framework. Another agency, more thoroughly
pervasive in its nature, and in its effects more nobly sublimating,
the agency of fire, is required to purge out the dross of its
earthliness, and render it a home and an inheritance fit for those
who are made like to the Son of God. (2 Pet. iii. 7-13.) And
Noah himself, though acknowledged heir of the righteousness by
faith, and receiving on his position the seal of heaven, in the
salvation granted to him and his household, yet how far from
being perfect in that righteousness, or by this salvation placed
beyond the reach of evil ! Ere long he miserably fell under the
power of temptation ; and unmistakeable evidence appeared that
eye for the imagery of nature, finds its way better to the meaning as in
the following simple lines of John Newton :
" When the sun with cheerful beams
Smiles upon a low ring sky,
Soon its aspect softened seems,
And a rainbow meets the eye ;
While the sky remains serene,
This bright arch is never seen.
Thus the Lord s supporting power
Brightest to His saints appears.
When affliction s threat ning hour
Fills their sky with clouds and fears ;
He can wonders then perform,
Paint a rainbow on the storm.
Favoured John a rainbow saw
Circling round the throne above ;
Hence the saints a pledge may draw
Of unchanging covenant-love :
Clouds awhile may intervene,
But the bow shall still be seen."
VOL. I. Y
338
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the serpent s seed had found a place among the members of his
household. High, therefore, as Noah stood compared with those
who had gone before him, he was, after all, but the representative
of an imperfect righteousness, and the heir of a corruptible and
transitory inheritance. He was the type, but no more than the
type, of Him who was to come in whom the righteousness of
God should be perfected, salvation should rise to its higher
sphere, and all, both in the heirs of glory, and the inheritance
they were to occupy, should by the baptism of fire be rendered
incorruptible and undefiled, and unfading.
!
SECTION FOURTH.
THE CHANGE IN THE DIVINE CALL FROM THE GENERAL TO
THE PARTICULAR SHEM, ABRAHAM.
THE obvious imperfections just noticed, both in the righteous
ness of the new head of the human family, and in the constitu
tion of the world over which he was placed, clearly enough
indicated that the divine plan had only advanced a stage in its
progress, but had by no means reached its perfection. As the
world, however, in its altered condition, had become naturally
superior to its former state, so in necessary and causal connec
tion with this it was in a spiritual respect to stand superior to
it : secured against the return of a general perdition, it was also
secured against the return of universal apostasy and corruption.
The cause of righteousness was not to be trodden down as it
had been before, nay, was to hold on its way and ultimately
rise to the ascendant in the affairs of men.
Not only was this presupposed in the covenant of perpetuity
established for the world, as the internal ground on which it
rested, but it was also distinctly announced by the father of the
new world, in the prophetic intimation he gave of the future
destinies of his children. It was a melancholy occasion which
drew this prophecy forth, as it was alike connected with the
shameful backsliding of Noah himself, and the wanton in
decency of his youngest son. When Noah recovered from his
sin, and understood how this son had exposed, while the other
two had covered, his nakedness, he said, " Cursed be Canaan ; a
servant of servants (i.e., a servant of the lowest grade) shall he
be to his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of
Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan
shall be his servant." (Gen. ix. 25-27.)
There are various points of interest connected with this
prophecy, and the occurrence that gave rise to it, which it does
340 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
not fall within our province to notice. But the leading scope
of it, as bearing on the prospective destinies of mankind, is
manifestly of a hopeful description ; and in that respect it
differs materially from the first historical incident that revealed
the conflict of nature and grace in the family of Adam. The
triumph of Cain over righteous Abel, and his stout-hearted
resistance to the voice of God, gave ominous indication of the
bad pre-eminence which sin was to acquire, and the fearful re
sults which it was to achieve in the old world. But the milder
form of this outbreak of evil in the family of Noah the im
mediate discouragement it meets with from the older members
of the family the strong denunciation it draws down from the
venerable parent above all, the clear and emphatic prediction
it elicits of the ascendancy of the good over the evil in these
seminal divisions of the human family, one and all perfectly
accorded with the more advanced state which the world had
reached ; they bespoke the cheering fact, that righteousness
should now hold its ground in the world, and that the dominant
powers and races should be in league with it, while servility
and degradation should rest upon its adversaries.
This, any one may see at a glance, is the general tendency
and design of what w T as uttered on the occasion ; but there is a
marked peculiarity in the form given to it, such as plainly inti
mates the commencement of a change in the Divine economy.
There is a striking particularism in the prophetic announcement.
It does not, as previously, give forth broad principles, or fore
tell merely general results of evil and of good ; but it explicitly
announces though still, no doubt, in wide and comprehensive
terms the characteristic outlines of the future state and relative
positions of Noah s descendants. Such is the decided tendency
here to the particular, that in the dark side of the picture it is
not Ham, the offending son and the general head of the worse
portion of the postdiluvian family, who is selected as the special
object of vengeance, nor the sons of Ham generally, but speci
fically Canaan, who, it seems all but certain, was the youngest
son. (Gen. x. 6.) Why this son, rather than the offending
father, should have been singled out for denunciation, has been
ascribed to various reasons ; and resort has not unfrequently
been had to conjecture, by supposing that this son may probably
CHANGE IN THE CALL, SIIEM. 341
have been present with the father, or some way participated with
him in the offence. Even, however, if we had been certified of
this participation, it could at most have accounted for the intro
duction of the name of Canaan, but not for that being substi
tuted in the room of the father s. Nor can we allow much more
weight to another supposition, that the omission of the name of
I lam may have been intended for the very purpose of proving
the absence of all vindictive feeling, and showing that these
were the words, not of a justly indignant parent giving vent to
the emotions of the passing moment, but of a divinely inspired
prophet calmly anticipating the events of a remote futurity.
Undoubtedly such is their character ; but no extenuating con
sideration of this kind is needed to prove it, if we only keep in
view the judicial nature of this part of the prophecy. The curse
pronounced is not an ebullition of wrathful feeling, riot a wish
for the infliction of evil, but the announcement of a doom, or
punishment for a particular offence ; and one that was to take,
as so often happens in Divine chastisements, the specific form
of the offence committed. Noah s affliction from the conduct
of Ham was in the most peculiar manner to find its parallel in
the case of Ham himself : He, the youngest son of Noah, 1 had
proved a vexation and disgrace to his father, and in meet re
taliation his own youngest son was to have his name in history
coupled with the most humiliating and abject degradation.
It was, therefore, in the first instance at least, for the pur
pose of marking more distinctly the connection between the sin
and its punishment, that Canaan only was mentioned in the
curse. View r ed as spoken to Ham, the word virtually said, I
am pained to the heart on account of you, my youngest son,
and you in turn shall have good cause to be pained on account
of your youngest son your own measure shall be meted back
with increase to yourself. It may be true as Hiivernick states
1 Gen. ix. 24. The expression in the original is Jtipn U3, and is the same
that is applied to David in 1 Sam. xvii. 14. There can, therefore, be no
reasonable doubt that it means youngest, and not tender or dear, as some
would take it. It is not so expressly said that Canaan was Ham s youngest
son ; but the inference that he was such is fair and natural, as he is men
tioned last in the genealogy, ch. x. G, where no sufficient reason can be
thought of for deviating from the natural order.
342 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
in his Introduction to the Pentateuch that the curse, properly
belonging to Ham, was to concentrate itself in the line of
Canaan ; and, beyond doubt, it is more especially in connection
with that line that Scripture itself traces the execution of the
curse. But these are somewhat remote and incidental consider
ations ; the more natural and direct is the one already given
which Hofmann, we believe, was the first to suggest. 1 And as
the word took the precise form it did, for the purpose more par
ticularly of marking the connection between the sin and the
punishment, it plainly indicated that the evil could not be con
fined to the line of Ham s descendants by Canaan ; the same
polluted fountain could not fail to send forth its bitter streams
also in other directions. The connection is entirely a moral
one. Even in the case of Canaan there was no arbitrary and
hapless appointment to inevitable degradation and slavery; as
is clearly proved by the long forbearance and delay in the exe
cution of the threatened doom, expressly on the ground of the
iniquity of the people not having become full, and also from the
examples of individual Canaanites, who rose even to distin
guished favour and blessing, such as Melchizedek and Rahab in
earlier, and the Syrophenician woman in later times. Noah,
however, saw with prophetic insight, that in a general point of
view the principle should here hold, like father like child ; and
that the irreverent and wanton spirit which so strikingly be
trayed itself in the conduct of the progenitor, should infallibly
give rise to an offspring whose dissolute and profligate manners
would in due time bring upon them a doom of degradation and
servitude. Such a posterity, with such a doom, beyond all
question were the Canaanites, to whom we may add also the
Tyrians and Sidonians, with their descendants the Carthaginians.
The connection of sin and punishment might be traced to other
sections besides, but it is not necessary that we pursue the subject
farther.
Our course of inquiry rather leads us to notice the turn the
prophecy takes in regard to the other side of the representation,
and to mark the signs it contains of a tendency toward the par
ticular, in connection with the future development of the scheme
of grace. This comes out first and pre-eminently in the case of
1 Weissagung und Erfullung, i., p. 89.
CHANGE IN THE CALL, ABRAHAM. 343
Shem : " And he said, Blessed is (or be) Jehovah, the God of
Shem" a blessing not directly upon Shem, but upon Jehovah
as his God ! Why such a peculiarity as this ? No doubt, in
the first instance, to make the contrast more palpable between
this case and the preceding ; the connection with God, which
was utterly wanting in the one, presenting itself as everything,
in a manner, in the other. Then it proclaims the identity as to
spiritual state between Noah and Shem, and designates this son
as in the full sense the heir of blessing : " Blessed be Jehovah,
the God of Shem," My God is also the God of my son ; I
adore Him for Himself ; and now, before I leave the world,
declare Him to be the covenant God of Shem. Nor of Shem
only as an individual, but as the head of a certain portion of the
world s inhabitants. It was with this portion that God was to
stand in the nearest relation. Here He was to find His peculiar
representatives, and His select instruments of working among
men here emphatically were to be the priestly people. A spi
ritual distinction, therefore the highest spiritual distinction, a
state of blessed nearness to God, and special interest in His fulness
is what is predicated of the line of Shem. And in the same
sense namely, as denoting a fellowship in this spiritual dis
tinction should that part of the prophecy on Japlieth also be
understood, which points to a connection with Shem : "God
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem."
It obviously, indeed, designates his stock generally as the most
spreading and energetic of the three pre-eminent, so far as
concerns diffusive operations and active labour in occupying the
lands and carrying forward the business of the world and thus
naturally tending, as the event has proved, to push their way,
even in a civil and territorial respect, into the tents of Shem.
This last thought may therefore not unfairly be included in the
compass of the prediction, but it can at most be regarded as the
subordinate idea. The prospect, as descried from the sacred
heights of prophecy, of dwelling in the tents of Shem, must
have been eyed, not as an intrusive conquest on the part of
Japheth, subjecting Shem in a measure to the degrading lot of
Canaan, but rather as a sacred privilege an admission of this
less honoured race under the shelter of the same Divine pro
tection, and into the partnership of the same ennobling benefits
344 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
with himself. In a word, it was through the line of Shem that
the gifts of grace and the blessings of salvation were more im
mediately to flow the Shemites were to have them at first
hand ; but the descendants of Japheth were also to participate
largely in the good. And by reason of their more extensive
ramifications and more active energies, were to be mainly in
strumental in working upon the condition of the world.
It is evident, even from this general intimation of the Divine
purposes, that the more particular direction which was now to
be given to the call of God, was not to be particular in the sense
of exclusive , but particular only for the sake of a more efficient
working and a more comprehensive result. The exaltation of
Shem s progeny into the nearest relationship to God, was not
that they might keep the privilege to themselves, but that first
getting it, they should admit the sons of Japheth, the inhabi
tants of the isles, to share with them in the boon, and spread it
as wide as their scattered race should extend. The principle
announced was an immediate particularism for the sake of an
ultimate universalism. And this change in the manner of work
ing was not introduced arbitrarily, but in consequence of the
proved inadequacy of the other, and, as we may say, more
natural course that had hitherto been pursued. Formally con
sidered, the earlier revelations of God made no difference be
tween one person and another, or even between one stem and
another. They spoke the same language, and held out the same
invitations to all. The weekly call to enter into God s rest
the promise of victory to the woman s seed the exhibition of
grace and hope in the symbols at the east of Eden the insti
tuted means of access to God in sacrificial worship even the
more specific promises and pledges of the Noachic covenant, were
offered and addressed to men without distinction. Practically,
however, they narrowed themselves ; and when the effect is
looked to, it is found that there was only a portion, an elect
seed, that really had faith in the Divine testimony, and entered
into possession of the offered good. Not only so, but there was
a downward tendency in the process. The elect seed did not
grow as time advanced, but proportionally decreased ; the cause
and party that flourished was the one opposed to God s. And
the same result was beginning to take place after the flood, as
CHANGE IN THE CALL, ABRAHAM. 345
is evident from what occurred in the family of Noah itself, and
from other notices of the early appearance of corruption. The
tendency in this direction was too strong to be effectually met
by such general revelations and overtures of mercy. The plan
was too vague and indeterminate. A more specific line of opera
tions was needed from the particular to the general ; so that a
certain amount of good, within a definite range, might in the first
instance be secured ; and that from this, as a fixed position, other
advantages might be gained, and more extensive results achieved.
It is carefully to be noted, then, that a comprehensive object
was as much contemplated in this new plan as in the other ;
it differed only in the mode of reaching the end in view. The
earth was to be possessed and peopled by the three sons of
Noah ; and of the three, Shem is the one who was selected as
the peculiar channel of Divine gifts and communications but
not for his own exclusive benefit ; rather to the end that others
might share with him in the blessing. The real nature and
bearing of the plan, however, became more clearly manifest,
when it began to be actually carried into execution. Its proper
commencement dates from the call of Abraham, who was of
the line of Shem, and in whom, as an individual, the purpose
of God began practically to take effect. Why the Divine
choice should have fixed specially upon him as the first indi
vidual link in this grand chain of providences, is not stated ;
and from the references subsequently made to it, we are plainly
instructed to regard it as an example of the absolutely free
grace and sovereign election of God. (Josh. xxiv. 2 ; Neh. ix.
7.) That he had nothing whereof to boast in respect to it, we
are expressly told; and yet we may not doubt, that in the line
of Shem s posterity, to which he belonged, there was more
knowledge of God, and less corruption in His worship, than
among other branches of the same stem. Hence, perhaps, as
being addressed to one who was perfectly cognizant of what
had taken place in the history of his progenitors, the revelation
made to him takes a form which bears evident respect to the
blessing pronounced on Sherft, and appears only indeed as the
giving of a more specific direction to Shem s high calling, or
chalking out a definite way for its accomplishment. Jehovah
was the God of Shem that in the word of Noah was declared
346 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to be his peculiar distinction. In like manner, Jehovah from
the first made Himself known to Abraham as his God; nay,
even took the name of "God of Abraham" as a distinctive
epithet, and made the promise, " I will be a God to thee and to
thy seed after thee," a leading article in the covenant established
with him. And as the peculiar blessing of Shem was to be
held with no exclusive design, but that the sons of Japheth far
and \vide might share in it, so Abraham is called not onlv to be
o -
himself blessed, but also that he might be a blessing, a blessing
to such an extent, that those should be blessed who blessed him,
and in him all the families of the earth should be blessed. Yet
with this general similarity between the earlier and the later
announcement, what a striking advance does the Divine plan
now make in breadth of meaning and explicitness of purpose !
How wonderfully does it combine together the little and the
great, the individual and the universal ! Its terminus a quo the
son of a Mesopotamian shepherd ; and its terminus ad quern the
entire brotherhood of humanity, and the round circumference of
the globe ! What a Divine-like grasp and comprehensiveness !
The very projection of such a scheme bespoke the infinite under
standing of Godhead ; and minds altogether the reverse of
narrow and exclusive, minds attempered to noble aims and in
spired by generous feeling, alone could carry it into execution.
By this call Abraham was raised to a very singular pre
eminence, and constituted in a manner the root and centre of
the world s future history, as concerns the attainment of real
blessing. Still, even in that respect not exclusively. The
blessing was to come chiefly to Abraham, and through him ;
but, as already indicated also in the prophecy on Shem, others
were to stand, though in a subordinate rank, on the same line ;
since those also were to be blessed who blessed him ; that is,
who held substantially the same faith, and occupied the same
friendly relation to God. The cases of such persons in the
patriarch s own day, as his kinsman Lot, who was not formally
admitted into Abraham s covenant, and still more of Mel-
chizedek, who was not even of Abraham s line, and yet indi
vidually stood in some sense higher than Abraham himself,
clearly showed, and were no doubt partly provided for the
express purpose of showing, that there was nothing arbitrary
CHANGE IN THE CALL, ABRAHAM. 347
in Abraham s position, and that the ground he occupied was to
a certain extent common to believers generally. The peculiar
honour conceded to him was, that the great trunk of blessing
was to be of him, while only some isolated twigs or scattered
branches were to be found elsewhere ; and even these could
only be found by persons coming, in a manner, to make com
mon cause with him. In regard to himself, however, the large
dowry of good conveyed to him in the Divine promise could
manifestly not be realized through himself personally. There
could at the most be but a beginning made in his own experience
and history ; and the widening of the circle of blessing to other
kindreds and regions, till it reached the most distant families
of the earth, could only be effected by means of those who
were to spring from him. Hence the original word of promise,
which was, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,"
was afterwards changed into this, " In thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxii. 18.)
Yet the original expression is not without an important mean
ing, and it takes the two, the earlier as well as the later form, to
bring out the full design of God in the calling of Abraham.
From the very nature of the case, first, as having respect to so
extensive a field to be operated on, and then from the explicit
mention of the patriarch s seed in the promise, no doubt what
ever could be entertained, that the good in its larger sense was
to be wrought out, not by himself individually and directly, but
by him in connection with the seed to be given to him. And
when the high character as well as the comprehensive reach of
the good was taken into account, it might well have seemed as
O o
if even that seed were somehow going to have qualities associated
with it which he could not perceive in himself as if another
and higher connection with the heavenly and Divine should in
due time be given to it, than any he was conscious of enjoying
in his state of noblest elevation. We, at least, know from the
better light we possess, that such actually was the case ; that the
good promised neither did nor could have come into realization
but by a personal commingling of the Divine with the human ;
and that it has become capable of reaching to the most exalted
height, and of diffusing itself through the widest bounds, simply
by reason of this union in Christ. He, therefore, is the essential
348 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
kernel of the promise ; and the seed of Abraham, rather than
Abraham himself, was to have the honour of blessing all the
families of the earth. This, however, by no means makes void
the in thee of the original promise ; for by so expressly connect
ing the good with Abraham as well as with his seed, the organic
connection was marked between the one and the other, and the
things that belonged to him were made known as the beginning
of the end. The blessing to be brought to the world through
his line had even in his time a present though small realization
precisely as the kingdom of Christ had its commencement in
that of David, and the one ultimately merged into the other.
And so, in Abraham as the living root of all that was to follow,
the whole and every part may be said to take its rise ; and not
only was Christ after the flesh of the seed of Abraham, but each
believer in Christ is a son of Abraham, and the entire company
of the redeemed shall have their place and their portion with
Abraham in the kingdom of God.
Such being the case with the call of Abraham, in its objects,
so high, and its results so grand and comprehensive, it is mani
fest that the immediate limitations connected with it, in regard
to a fleshly offspring and a worldly inheritance, must only have
been intended to serve as temporary expedients and fit stepping-
stones for the ulterior purposes in view. And such statements
regarding the covenant with Abraham, as that it merely secured
to Abraham a posterity, and to that posterity the possession of
the land of Canaan for an inheritance, on the condition of their
acknowledging Jehovah as their God, is to read the terms of
the covenant with a microscope magnifying the little, and
leaving the great altogether unnoticed in the preliminary means
losing sight of the prospective end. 1 Another thing also, and
one more closely connected with our present subject, is equally
manifest ; which is, that since the entire scheme of blessing had
its root in Abraham, it must also have had its representation in
1 This is exactly the course taken in a late volume, Israel after the Flesh,
by the Rev. William H. Johnstone, pp. 7, 8. He appears also to slump to
gether the covenant with Abraham and the covenant at Sinai, as if the one
were simply a renewal of the other. And this notwithstanding the distinc
tion drawn so pointedly between them in the Epistle to the Galatians, and
while the author, too, professes to have gone to work with the thorough
determination to be guided only by Scripture !
CHANGE IN THE CALL, ABRAHAM. 349
him he, in his position and character and fortunes, must have
been the type of that which was to come. Such uniformly is
God s plan, in respect to those whom it constitutes heads of a
class, or founders of a particular dispensation. It was so, first
of all, with Adam, in whom humanity itself was imaged. It was
so again in a measure with the three sons of Noah, whose respec
tive states and procedure gave prophetic indication of the more
prominent characteristics that should distinguish their offspring.
Such, too, at a future period, and much more remarkably, was
the case with David, in whom, as the beginning and root of the
everlasting kingdom, there was presented the foreshadowing type
of all that should essentially belong to the kingdom, when repre
sented by its Divine head, and set up in its proper dimensions.
Nor could it now be properly otherwise with Abraham. The
very terms of the call, which singled him out from the mass of
the world, and set him on high, constrain us to regard him as in
the strictest sense a representative man in himself and the
things belonging to his immediate heirs, the type at once of the
subjective and the objective design of the covenant, or, in other
words, of the kind of persons who were to be the subjects arid
channels of blessing, and of the kind of inheritance with which
they were to be blessed. It is for the purpose of exhibiting this
clearly and distinctly, and thereby rendering the things written
of Abraham and his immediate offspring a revelation, in the
strictest sense, of God s mind and will regarding the more distant
future, that this portion of patriarchal history was constructed.
Abraham himself, in the first instance, was the covenant head
and the type of what was to come ; but as the family of the
Israelites were to be the collective bearers and representatives
of the covenant, so, not Abraham alone, but the whole of their
immediate progenitors, who were alike heads of the covenant
people, along with Abraham, Isaac also, and Jacob, and the
twelve patriarchs, possess a typical character. It shall be our
object, therefore, in the two remaining sections, which must
necessarily extend to a considerable length, to present the more
prominent features of the instruction intended to be conveyed
in both of the respects now mentioned first in regard to the
subjects and channels of blessing, and then in regard to the in
heritance destined for their possession.
SECTION FIFTH.
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING ABEAHAM AND
ISAAC, JACOB AND THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS.
WHILE we class the whole of these together, on account of
their being alike covenant heads to the children of Israel, who
became in due time the covenant people, we are not to lose
sight of the fact, that Abraham was more especially the person
in whom the covenant had its original root and representation.
It is in his case, accordingly, that we might expect to find, and
that we actually have, the most specific and varied information
respecting the nature of the covenant, and the manner in which
it was to reach its higher ends. We shall therefore look, in
the first instance, to what is written of him, coupling Isaac,
however, with him ; since what is chiefly interesting and import
ant about Isaac concerns hini as the seed, for which Abraham
was immediately called to look and wait : so that, as to the
greater lines of instruction, which are all we can at present
notice, the lives of the two are knit inseparably together. And
the same is, to a considerable extent, the case also with Jacob
and the twelve patriarchs. The whole may be said to be of one
piece, viewed as a special instruction for the covenant people,
and through them for the Church at large, in respect to her
calling and position in the world.
I. Abraham, then, is called to be in a peculiar sense the
possessor and dispenser of blessing ; to be himself blessed, and
through the seed that is to spring from him, to be a blessing to
the whole race of mankind. A divine-like calling and destiny !
for it is God alone who is properly the source and giver of
blessing. Abraham, therefore, by his very appointment, is
raised into a supranatural relationship to God ; he is to be in
direct communication with heaven, and to receive all from
above ; God is to work, in a special manner, for him and by
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 351
him ; and the people that are to spring out of him, for a bless
ing to other peoples, are to arise, not in the ordinary course
of nature, but above and beyond it, as the benefits also they
should be called to diffuse belong to a higher region than that
of nature. As a necessary counterpart to this, and the in
dispensable condition of its accomplishment, there must be in
Abraham a principle of faith, such as might qualify him for
transacting with God, in regard to the higher things of the
covenant. These were not seen or present, and were also
strange, supernatural, in the view of sense unlikely or even
impossible ; yet were not the less to be regarded as sure in the
destination of heaven, and to be looked, waited, or, if need be,
also striven and suffered for by men. This principle of faith
must evidently be the fundamental and formative power in
Abraham s bosom the very root of his new being, the life of
his life at once making him properly receptive of the Divine
goodness, and readily obedient to the Divine will in the one
respect giving scope for the display of God s wonders in his
behalf, and in the other prompting him to act in accordance
with God s righteous ends and purposes. So it actually was.
Abraham was pre-eminently a man of faith ; and on that ac
count was raised to the honourable distinction of the Father of
the Faithful. And faith in him proved not only a capacity to
receive, but a hand also to work ; and is scarcely les remark
able for what it brought to his experience from the grace and
power of God, than for the sustaining, elevating, and sanctify
ing influence which it shed over his life and conduct. There
are particularly three stages, each rising in succession above the
other, in which it is important for us to mark this.
1. The first is that of the Divine call itself, which came to
Abraham while still living among his kindred in the land of
Mesopotamia. (Gen. xii. 1-3.) Even in this original form of
the Divine purpose concerning him, the supernatural element is
conspicuous. To say nothing of its more general provisions,
that he, a Mesopotamian shepherd, should be made surpassingly
great, and should even be a source of blessing to all the families
of the earth to say nothing of these, which might appear in
credible only from their indefinite vastness and comprehension,
the two specific promises in the call, that a great nation should
352 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
be made of him, and that another land presently afterwards
determined to be the land of Canaan should be given him for
an inheritance, both lay beyond the bounds of the natural and
the probable. At the time the call was addressed to Abraham,
he was already seventy-five years old, and his wife Sarah, being
only ten years younger, must have been sixty-five. (Gen. xii.
4, xvii. 17.) For such persons to be constituted parents, and
parents of an offspring that should become a great nation, in
volved at the very outset a natural impossibility, and could only
be made good by a supernatural exercise of Divine Omni
potence a miracle. Nor was it materially different in regard
to the other part of the promise ; for it is expressly stated, when
the precise land to be given was pointed out to him, that the
Canaanite was then in the land. (Gen. xii. 6.) It was even
then an inhabited territory, and by no ordinary concurrence of
events could be expected to become the heritage of the yet un
born posterity of Abraham. It could only be looked for as the
result of God s direct and special interposition in their behalf.
Yet, incredible as the promise seemed in both of its depart
ments, Abraham believed the word spoken to him ; he had faith
to accredit the Divine testimony, and to take the part which it
assigned him. Both were required a receiving of the promise
first, and then an acting with a view to it ; for, on the ground
of such great things being destined for him, he was commanded
to leave his natural home and kindred, and go forth under the
Divine guidance to the new territory to be assigned him. In
this command was discovered the inseparable connection be
tween faith and holiness ; or between the call of Abraham to
receive distinguishing and supernatural blessing, and his call to
lead a life of sincere and devoted obedience. He was singled
out from the world s inhabitants to begin a new order of things,
which were to bear throughout the impress of God s special
grace and almighty power ; and he must separate himself from
the old things of nature, to be in his life the representative of
God s holiness, as in his destiny he was to be the monument of
God s power and goodness.
It is this exercise of faith in Abraham which is first exhibited
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as bespeaking a mighty energy
in its working ; the more especially as the exchange in the case
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 353
of Abraham and his immediate descendants did not prove by
any means agreeable to nature. " By faitli Abraham, when he
was called to go out into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed; arid he went out, not knowing
whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." It may seem,
indeed, at this distance of place and time, as if there were no
great difference in the condition of Abraham and his house
hold, in the one place as compared with the other. But it was
quite otherwise in reality. They had, first of all, to break
asunder the ties of home and kindred, which nature always feels
painful, especially in mature age, even though it may have the
prospect before it of a comfortable settlement in another region.
This sacrifice they had to make in the fullest sense : it was in
their case a strictly final separation ; they were to be absolutely
done with the old and its endearments, and to cleave henceforth
to the new. Nor only so, but their immediate position in the
new was not like that which they had before in the old : settled
possessions in the one, but none in the other ; instead of them,
mere lodging-room among strangers, and a life on Providence.
Nature does not love a change like that, and can only regard it
as quitting the certainties of sight for the seeming uncertainties
of faith and hope. These, however, were still but the smaller
trials which Abraham s faith had to encounter ; for, along with
the change in his outward condition, there came responsibilities
and duties altogether alien to nature s feelings, and contrary to
its spirit. In his old country he followed his own way, and
walked after the course of the world, having no special work to
do, nor any calling of a more solemn kind to fulfil. But now,
by obeying the call of Heaven, he was brought into immediate
connection with a spiritual and holy God, became charged in a
manner with His interest in the world, and bound, in the face
of surrounding enmity or scorn, faithfully to maintain His cause,
and promote the glory of His name. To do this was in truth
to renounce nature, and rise superior to it. And it teas done,
let it be remembered, out of regard to prospects which could
only be realized if the power of God should forsake its wonted
channels of working, and perform what the carnal mind would
VOL. i. z
354 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
have deemed it infatuation to look for. Even in that first stage
of the patriarch s course, there was a noble triumph of faith,
and the earnest of a life replenished with the fruits of righteous
ness.
It is true, the promise thus given at the commencement was
not uniformly sustained; and Abraham was not long in Canaan
till there seemed to be a failure on the part of God toward him,
and there actually was a failure on his part toward God. The
occurrence of a famine leads him to take refuge for a time in
Egypt, which was even then the granary of that portion of
the East; and he is tempted, through fear of his personal safety,
to equivocate regarding Sarah, and call her his sister. The
equivocation is certainly not to be justified, either on this or on
the future occasion on which it was again resorted to; for though
it contained a half truth, this was so employed as to render u the
half truth a whole lie." We are rather to refer both circum
stances his repairing to Egypt, and when there betaking to
such a worldly expedient for safety as betraying the imperfec
tion of his faith, which had strength to enable him to enter
on his new course of separation from the world and devotedness
to God, but still wanted clearness of discernment and implicit
ness of trust sufficient to meet the unexpected difficulties that
so early presented themselves in the way. Strange indeed had
it been otherwise. It was necessary that the faith of Abraham,
like that of believers generally, should learn by experience, and
even grow by its temporary defeats. The first failure on the
present occasion stood in his seeking relief from the emergency
that arose by withdrawing, without the Divine sanction, to
another country than that into which he had been conducted by
the special providence of God. Instead of looking up for direc
tion and support, he betook to worldly shifts and expedients,
and thus became entangled in difficulties, out of which the im
mediate interposition of God alone could have rescued him. In
this way, however, the result proved beneficial. Abraham was
made to feel, in the first instance, that his backsliding had
reproved him ; and then the merciful interposition of Heaven,
rebuking even a king for his sake, taught him the lesson, that
with the God of heaven upon his side, he had no need to be
afraid for the outward evils that might beset him in his course.
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 355
He had but to look up in faith, and get the direction or support
that he needed.
The conduct of Abraham, immediately after his return to
Canaan, gave ample evidence of the general stedfastness and
elevated purity of his course. Though travelling about as a
stranger in the land, he makes all around him feel that it is a
O
blessed thing to be connected with him, and that it would be
well for them if the land really were in his possession. The
quarrel that presently arose between Lot s herdsmen and his
own, merely furnished the occasion for his disinterested gene
rosity, in waiving his own rights, and allowing to his kinsman
the priority and freedom of choice. And another quarrel of a
graver kind, that of the war between the four kings in higher
Asia, and of the five small dependent sovereigns in the south of
Canaan, drew forth still nobler manifestations of the large and
self-sacrificing spirit that filled his bosom. Kegarding the
unjust capture of Lot as an adequate reason for taking part in
the conflict, he went courageously forth with his little band of
trained servants, overthrew the conquerors, and recovered all
that had been lost. Yet, at the very moment he displayed the
victorious energy of his faith, by discomfiting this mighty army,
how strikingly did he, at the same time, exhibit its patience in
declining to use the advantage he then gained to hasten forward
the purposes of God concerning his possession of the land, and
its moderation of spirit, its commanding superiority to merely
worldly ends and objects, in refusing to take even the smallest
portion of the goods of the king of Sodom ! Nay, so far from
seeking to exalt self by pressing outward advantages and worldly
resources, his spirit of faith, leading him to recognise the hand
of God in the success that had been won, causes him to bow
down in humility, and do homage to the Most High God in the
person of His priest Melchizedek. He gave this Melchizedek
tithes of all, and as himself the less, received blessing from
Melchizedek as the greater.
Viewed thus merely as a mark of the humble and reverent
spirit of Abraham, the offspring of his faith in God, this notice
of his relation to Melchizedek is interesting. But other things
of a profounder nature were wrapt up in the transaction, which
the pen of inspiration did not fail afterwards to elicit (Ps. ex.
356 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
4 ; Heb. vii.), and which it is proper to glance at before we pass
on to another stage of the patriarch s history. The extraordinary
circumstance of such a person as a priest of the Most High
God, whom even Abraham acknowledged to be such, starting up
all at once in the devoted land of Canaan, and vanishing out of
sight almost as soon as he appeared, has given rise, from the
earliest times, to numberless conjectures. Ham, Shem, Noah,
Enoch, an angel, Christ, the Holy Spirit, have each, in the
hands of different persons, been identified with this Melchizedek ;
but the view now almost universally acquiesced in is, that he was
simply a Canaanite sovereign, who combined with his royal dig
nity as king of Salem 1 the office of a true priest of God. No
other supposition, indeed, affords a satisfactory explanation of
the narrative. The very silence observed regarding his origin,
and the manner of his appointment to the priesthood, was
intentional, and served to draw more particular attention to
the facts of the case, as also to bring it into a closer corre-
O
spondence with the ultimate realities. The more remarkable
peculiarity was, that to this person, simply because he w^as a
righteous king and priest of the Most High God, Abraham,
the elect of God, the possessor of the promises, paid tithes, and
received from him a blessing ; and did it, too, at the very time
he stood so high in honour, and kept himself so carefully aloof
from another king then present the king of Sodom. He
placed himself as conspicuously below the one personage as he
raised himself above the other. Why should he have done so ?
Because Melchizedek already in a measure possessed what
Abraham still only hoped for he reigned where Abraham s
1 No stress is laid on the particular place of which he was king, except
ing that, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, its meaning (Peace) is viewed as
symbolic ; only, however, for the purpose of bringing out the idea, that
this singular person was really what his name and the name of his place
imported. He was in reality a righteous king, and a prince of peace. But
there seems good reason to believe the Jewish tradition well-founded, that
it is but the abbreviated name of Jerusalem. Hence the name Salem is also
applied to it in Ps. Ixxvi. 2. And the correctness of the opinion is con
firmed by the mention of the king s dale, in Gen. xiv. 17, which from 2 Sam.
xviii. 18 can scarcely be supposed to have been far from Jerusalem. The
name also of Adonaizedek, synonymous with Melchizedek, as that of the
king of Jerusalem in Joshua s time (Josh. x. 3), is a still farther confirmation.
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 357
seed were destined to reign, and exercised a priesthood which in
future generations was to be committed to them. The union of
the two in Melchizedek was in itself a great thing greater than
the separate offices of king and priest in the houses respectively
of David and Aaron ; but it was an expiring greatness : it was
like the last blossom on the old rod of Noah, which thenceforth
became as a dry tree. In Abraham, on the other hand, was the
germ of a new and higher order of things : the promise, though
still only the budding promise, of a better inheritance of bless
ing ; and when the seed should come in whom the promise was
more especially to stand, then the more general and comprehen
sive aspect of the Melchizedek order was to reappear, and re
appear in one who could at once place it on firmer ground, and
carry it to unspeakably higher results. Here, then, was a sacred
enigma for the heart of faith to ponder, and for the spirit of
truth gradually to unfold : Abraham, in one respect, relatively
great, and in another relatively little; personally inferior to
Melchizedek, and yet the root of a seed that was to do for the
world incomparably more than Melchizedek had done ; himself
the type of a higher than Melchizedek, and yet Melchizedek a
more peculiar type than he ! It was a mystery that could be
disclosed only in partial glimpses beforehand, but which now has
become comparatively plain by the person and work of Immanuel.
What but the wonder-working finger of God could have so ad
mirably fitted the past to be such a singular image of the future !
There are points connected with this subject that will
naturally fall to be noticed at a later period, when we come to
treat of the Aaronic priesthood, and other points also, though of
a minor kind, belonging to this earlier portion of Abraham s
history? which we cannot particularly notice. We proceed to
the second stage in the development of his spiritual life.
2. This consisted in the establishment of the covenant be
tween him and God ; which falls, however, into tovo parts : one
earlier in point of time, and in its own nature incomplete ; the
other, both the later and the more perfect form.
It would seem as if, after the stirring transactions connected
with the victory over Chedorlaomer and his associates, and the
interview with Melchizedek, the spirit of Abraham had sunk
into depression and fear ; for the next notice we have respecting
358 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
him represents God as appearing to him in vision, and bidding
him not to be afraid, since God Himself was his shield and his
exceeding great reward. It is not improbable that some appre
hension of a revenge on the part of Chedorlaomer might haunt
his bosom, and that he might begin to dread the result of such
an unequal contest as he had entered on with the powers of the
world. But it is clear also, from the sequel, that another thing
preyed upon his spirits, and that he was filled with concern on
account of the long delay that was allowed to intervene before
the appearance of the promised seed. He still went about child
less; and the thought could not but press upon his mind, of
what use were other things to him, even of the most honourable
kind, if the great thing, on which all his hopes for the future
turned, were still withheld? The Lord graciously met this
natural misgiving by the assurance, that not any son by adop
tion merely, but one from his own loins, should be given him for
an heir. And to make the matter more palpable to his mind,
and take external nature, as it were, to witness for the fulfil
ment of the word, the Lord brought him forth, and, pointing to
the stars of heaven, declared to him, " So shall thy seed be."
"And he believed in the Lord," it is said, "and He counted it
to him for righteousness." (Gen. xv. 1-6.)
This historical statement regarding Abraham s faith is re
markable, as it is the one so strenuously urged by the Apostle
Paul in his argument for justification by faith alone in the
righteousness of Christ. (Rom. iv. 18-22.) And the question
has been keenly debated, whether it was the faith itself which
was in God s account taken for righteousness, or the righteous
ness of God in Christ, which that faith prospectively laid hold
of. Our wisdom here, however, and in all similar cases, is not
to press the statements of Old Testament Scripture so as to
render them explicit categorical deliverances on Christian doc
trine, in which case violence must inevitably be done to them,
but rather to catch the general principle embodied in them,
arid give it a fair application to the more distinct revelations of
the Gospel. This is precisely what is done by St Paul. He
does not say a word about the specific manifestation of the
righteousness of God in Christ, when arguing from the state
ment respecting the righteousness of faith in Abraham. He
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 359
lays stress simply upon the natural impossibilities that stood in
the way of God s promise of a numerous offspring to Abraham
being fulfilled the comparative deadness both of his own body
and of Sarah s and on the implicit confidence Abraham had,
notwithstanding, in the power and faithfulness of God, that He
would perform what He had promised. " Therefore," adds the
Apostle, " it was imputed to him for righteousness." Therefore
namely, because through faith he so completely lost sight of
nature and self, and realized with undoubting confidence the
sufficiency of the Divine arm, and the certainty of its working.
His faith was nothing more, nothing else, than the renunciation
of all virtue and strength in himself, and a hanging in childlike
trust upon God for what He was able and willing to do. Not,
therefore, a mere substitute for a righteousness that was want
ing, an acceptance of something that could be had for some
thing better that failed, but rather the vital principle of a
righteousness in God the acting of a soul in unison with the
mind of God, and finding its life, its hope, its all in Him.
Transfer such a faith to the field of the New Testament bring
it into contact with the manifestation of God in the person and
work of Christ for the salvation of the world, and what would
inevitably be its language but that of the Apostle : " God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ,"
"not my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is of God through faith !"
To return to Abraham. When he had attained to such
confiding faith in the Divine word respecting the promised seed,
the Lord gave him an equally distinct assurance respecting the
promised land; and in answer to Abraham s question, "Lord
God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it ? " the Lord
"made a covenant with him" respecting it, by means of a sym
bolical sacrificial action. It was a covenant by blood ; for in
the very act of establishing the union, it was meet there should
be a reference to the guilt of man, and a provision for purging
it away. The very materials of the sacrifice have here a specific
meaning; the greater sacrifices, those of the heifer, the goat,
and the ram, being expressly fixed to be of three years old-
pointing to the three generations which Abraham s posterity
were to pass in Egypt ; and these, together with the turtle-dove
360 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCEIPTURE.
and the young pigeon, comprising a full representation of the
animals afterwards offered in sacrifice under the law. As the
materials, so also the form of the sacrifice was symbolical the
animals being divided asunder, and one piece laid over against
another ; for the purpose of more distinctly representing the
two parties in the transaction two, and yet one meeting and
acting together in one solemn offering. Recognising Jehovah
as the chief party in what was taking place, Abraham waits
for the Divine manifestation, and contents himself with mean
while driving away the ill-omened birds of prey that flocked
around the sacrifice. At last, when the shades of night had
fallen, " a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between
those pieces" the glory of the Lord Himself, as so often after
wards, in a pillar of cloud and fire. Passing under this emblem
through the divided sacrifice, He formally accepted it, and struck
the covenant with His servant. (Jer. xxxiv. 18, 19.) At the
same time, also, a profound sleep had fallen upon Abraham,
and a horror of great darkness, symbolical of the outward
humiliations and sufferings through which the covenant was to
reach its accomplishment ; and in explanation the announce
ment was expressly made to him, that his posterity should be
in bondage and affliction four hundred years in a foreign land,
and should then, in the fourth generation, be brought up from
it with great substance. 1 In justification, also, of the long
delay, the specific reason was given, that " the iniquity of the
1 The notes of time here given for the period of the sojourn in Egypt
are somewhat indefinite. The 400 years is plainly mentioned as a round
sum ; it was afterwards more precisely and historically defined as 430
(Ex. xii. 40, 41). From the juxtaposition of the 400 years and the fourth
generation in the words to Abraham, the one must be understood as nearly
equivalent to the other, and the period must consequently be regarded as
that of the actual residence of the children of Israel in Egypt, from the
descent of Jacob not, as many after the Septuagint, from the time of
Abraham. For the shortest genealogies exhibit four generations between
that period and the exodus. Looking at the genealogical table of Levi
(Ex. vi. 16, sq.), 120 years might not unfairly be taken as an average life
time or generation ; so that three of these complete, and a part of the
fourth, would easily make 430. In Gal. iii. 17, the law is spoken of as only
430 years after the covenant with Abraham ; but the Apostle merely refers
to the known historical period, and regards the first formation of the cove
nant with Abraham as all one with its final ratification with Jacob.
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 361
Amorites was not yet full," plainly importing that this part
of the Divine procedure had a moral aim, and could only be
carried into effect in accordance with the great principles of the
Divine righteousness.
The covenant was thus established in both its branches, yet
only in an imperfect manner, if respect were had to the coming
future, and even to the full bearing and import of the covenant
itself. Abraham had got a present sign of God s formally
entering into covenant with him for the possession of the land
of Canaan ; but it came and went like a troubled vision of the
night. There was needed something of a more tangible and
permanent kind, an abiding, sacramental covenant signature,
which by its formal institution on God s part, and its regular
observance on the part of Abraham and his seed, might serve
as a mutual sign of covenant engagements. This was the more
necessary, as the next step in Abraham s procedure but too
clearly manifested that he still wanted light regarding the
nature of the covenant, and in particular regarding the super
natural, the essentially Divine, character of its provisions. From
the prolonged barrenness of Sarah, and her now advanced
age, it began to be imagined that Sarah possibly might not
be included in the promise, the rather so, as no express
mention had been made of her in the previous intimations of
the Divine purpose ; and so despairing of having herself any
share in the fulfilment of the promised word, she suggested,
and Abraham fell in with the suggestion, that the fulfilment
should be sought by the substitution of her bondmaid Hagar.
This was again resorting to an expedient of the flesh to get
over a present difficulty, and it was soon followed by its meet
retribution in providence domestic troubles and vexations.
The bondmaid had been raised out of her proper place, and
began to treat Sarah, the legitimate spouse of Abraham, with
contempt. And had she even repressed her improper feelings,
and brought forth a child in the midst of domestic peace and
harmony, yet a son so born after the ordinary course of nature,
and in compliance with one of her corrupter usages could not
have been allowed to stand as the representative of that seed
through which blessing was to come to the world.
On both accounts, therefore, first, to give more explicit
362 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
information regarding the son to be born, and then to provide a
significant and lasting signature of the covenant, another and
more perfect ratification of it took place. The word which
introduced this new scene, expressed the substance and design
of the whole transaction : " I am God Almighty : walk before
Me, and be thou perfect " (Gen. xvii. 1) : On My part there
is power amply sufficient to accomplish what I have promised :
whatever natural difficulties may stand in the way, the whole
shall assuredly be done ; only see that on your part there be a
habitual recognition of My presence, and a stedfast adherence
to the path of rectitude and purity. What follows is simply a
filling up of this general outline a more particular announce
ment of what God on His part should do, and then of what
Abraham and his posterity were to do on the other. " As for
Me " (literally, I i.e., on My part), " behold, My covenant is
with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither
shall thy name any more be called Abram ; but thy name shall
be Abraham : for a father of many nations have I made thee.
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make
nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will
establish My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after
thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a
God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give
unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou
art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting pos
session ; and I will be their God." This was God s part in the
covenant, to which He immediately subjoined, by way of ex
planation, that the seed more especially meant in the promise
was to be of Sarah as well as Abraham ; that she was to renew
her youth, and have a son, and that her name also was to be
changed in accordance with her new position. Then follows
what was expected and required on the other side : " And God
said unto Abraham, And thou " (this now is thy part), " My
covenant shalt thou keep, thou, and thy seed after thee ; Every
male among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin ; and it shall be for a covenant-sign
betwixt Me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be
circumcised to you, every male in your generations ; he that is
born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, that
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 363
is not of thy seed And My covenant shall be in your
flesh for an everlasting covenant. And uncircumcision " (i.e.,
pollution, abomination) "is the male who is not circumcised
in the flesh of his foreskin ; and cut off is that soul from his
people ; he has broken My covenant."
There is no need for going into the question, whether this
ordinance of circumcision was now for the first time introduced
among men ; or whether it already existed as a practice to some
extent, and was simply adopted by God as a fit and significant
token of His covenant. It is comparatively of little moment
how such a question may be decided. The same principle may
have been acted on here, which undoubtedly had a place in the
modelling of the Mosaic institutions, and which will be dis
cussed and vindicated when we come to consider the influence
exercised by the learning of Moses on his subsequent legislation
the principle, namely, of taking from the province of religion
generally a symbolical sign or action, that was capable, when
associated with the true religion, of fitly expressing its higher
truths and principles. The probability is, that this principle
was recognised and acted on here. Circumcision has been
O
practised among classes of people and nations who cannot
reasonably be supposed to have derived it from the family of
Abraham among the ancients, for example, by the Egyptian
priesthood, and among the moderns by native tribes in America
and the islands of the Pacific. Its extensive prevalence and
long continuance can only be accounted for on the ground that
it has a foundation in the feelings of the natural conscience,
which, like the distinctions into clean and unclean, or the pay
ment of tithes, may have led to its employment before the time
of Abraham, and also fitted it afterwards for serving as the
peculiar sign of God s covenant with him. At the same time, as
it was henceforth intended to be a distinctive badge of covenant
relationship, it could not have been generally practised in the
region where the chosen family were called to live and act.
From the purpose to which it was applied, we may certainly
infer that it formed at once an appropriate and an easily recog
nised distinction between the race of Abraham and the families
and nations by whom they were more immediately surrounded.
Among the race of Abraham, however, it had the widest
364 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
application given to it. While God so far identified it with
His covenant, as to suspend men s interest in the one upon
their observance of the other, it was with His covenant in its
wider aspect and bearing not simply as securing either an
offspring after the flesh, or the inheritance for that offspring of
the land of Canaan. It was comparatively but a limited por
tion of Abraham s actual offspring who were destined to grow
into a separate nation, and occupy as their home the territory
of Canaan. At the very outset Ishmael was excluded, though
constituted the head of a great nation. And yet not only he,
but all the members of Abraham s household, were alike ordered
to receive the covenant signature. Nay, even in later times,
when the children of Israel had grown into a distinct people,
and everything was placed under the strict administration of
law, it was always left open to people of other lands and tribes
to enter into the bonds of the covenant through the rite of cir
cumcision. This rite, therefore, must have had a significance
for them, as well as for the more favoured seed of Jacob. It
spoke also to their hearts and consciences, and virtually declared
that the covenant which it symbolized had .nothing in its main
design of an exclusive and contracted spirit; that its greater
things lay open to all who were willing to seek them in the
appointed way ; and that if at first there were individual per
sons, and afterwards a single people, who were more especially
identified with the covenant, it was only to mark them out as
the chosen representatives of its nature and objects, and to
constitute them lights for the instruction and benefit of others.
There never was a more evident misreading of the palpable
facts of history, than appears in the disposition so often mani
fested to limit the rite of circumcision to one line merely of
Abraham s posterity, and to regard it as the mere outward badge
of an external national distinction.
It is to be held, then, as certain in regard to the sign of the
covenant as in regard to the covenant itself, that its more
special and marked connection with individuals was only for
the sake of more effectually helping forward its general objects.
And not less firmly is it to be held, that the outwardness in the
rite was for the sake of the inward and spiritual truths it sym
bolized. It w^as appointed as the distinctive badge of the cove-
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 365
nant, because it was peculiarly fitted for symbolically expressing
the spiritual character and design of the covenant. It marked
the condition of every one who received it, as having to do both
with higher powers and higher objects than those of corrupt
nature, as the condition of one brought into blessed fellowship
with God, and therefore called to walk before Him and be per
fect. There would be no difficulty in perceiving this, nor any
material difference of opinion upon the subject, if people would
but look beneath the surface, and in the true spirit of the
ancient religion, would contemplate the outward as an image of
the inward. The general purport of the covenant was, that
from Abraham as an individual there was to be generated a seed
of blessing, in which all real blessing was to centre, and from
which it was to flow to the ends of the earth. There could not,
therefore, be a more appropriate sign of the covenant than such
a rite as circumcision so directly connected with the generation
of offspring, and so distinctly marking the necessary purification
of nature the removal of the filth of the flesh that the off
spring might be such as really to constitute a seed of blessing.
It is through ordinary generation that the corruption incident
on the fall is propagated; and hence, under the law, which
contained a regular system of symbolical teaching, there were
so many occasions of defilement traced to this source, and so
many means of purification appointed for them . Now, there
fore, when God was establishing a covenant, the great object of
which was to reverse the propagation of evil, to secure for the
world a blessed and a blessed-making seed, he affixed to the
covenant this symbolical rite to show that the end was to be
reached, not as the result of nature s ordinary productiveness,
but of nature purged from its uncleanness nature raised above
itself, in league with the grace of God, and bearing on it the
distinctive impress of His character and working. It said to
the circumcised man, that he had Jehovah for his bridegroom,
to whom he had become espoused, as it were, by blood (Ex. iv.
25), and that he must no longer follow the unregulated will and
impulse of nature, but live in accordance with the high relation
lie occupied, and the sacred calling he had received. 1
1 It may also be noted, that by this quite natural and fundamental
view of the ordinance, subordinate peculiarities admit of an easy
366 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Most truly, therefore, does the Apostle say, that Abraham
received circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had (Rom. iv. 11) a Divine token in his own case
that he had attained through faith to such fellowship with God,
and righteousness in Him and a token for every child that
should afterwards receive it; not indeed that he actually possessed
the same, but that he was called to possess it, and had a right to
the privileges and hopes which might enable him to attain to the
possession. Most truly also does the Apostle say in another
place (Rom. ii. 28, 29) : " He is not a Jew which is one out
wardly (i.e., not a Jew in the right sense, not such an one as
God would recognise and own) ; neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh : But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly : and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and
not in the letter ; whose praise is not of men, but of God."
The very design of the covenant was to secure a seed with these
inward and spiritual characteristics ; and the sign of the cove
nant, the outward impression in the flesh, was worthless, a mere
external concision as the Apostle calls it, when it came to be
alone, Phil. iii. 2 excepting in so far as it was the expression
of the corresponding reality. Isaac, the first child of promise,
was the fitting type of such a covenant. In the very manner
and time of his production he was a sign to all coming ages of
what the covenant required and sought ; not begotten till
Abraham himself bore the symbol of nature s purification, nor
born till it was evident the powers of nature must have been
miraculously vivified for the purpose ; so that in his very being
and birth Isaac was emphatically a child of God. But in being
so, he was the exact type of what the covenant properly aimed
at, and what its expressive symbol betokened, viz., a spiritual
seed, in which the Divine and human, grace and nature, should
meet together in producing true subjects and channels of bless-
nation. For example, the limitation of the sign to males which in the
circumstances could not be otherwise ; though the special purifications
under the law for women might justly be regarded as providing for them
a sort of counterpart. Then, the fixing on the eighth day as the proper
one for the rite that being the first day after the revolution of an entire
week of separation from the mother, and when fully withdrawn from con
nection with the parent s blood, it began to live and breathe in its own
impurity. (See further Imperial Bible Diet. Art. Circumcision.)
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 367
ing. But its actual representation the one complete and per
fect embodiment of all it symbolized and sought was the Lord
Jesus Christ, in whom the Divine and human met from the
first, not in co-operative merely, but in organic union ; and con
sequently the result produced was a Being free from all taint of
corruption, holy, harmless, un defiled, the express image of the
Father, the very righteousness of God. He alone fully realized
the conditions of blessing exhibited in the covenant, and was
qualified to be in the largest sense the seed-corn of a harvest of
blessing for the whole field of humanity.
It is true and those who take their notions of realities from
appearances alone, will doubtless reckon it a sufficient reply to
what has been said that the portion of Abraham s seed who
afterwards became distinctively the covenant people Israel after
the flesh were by no means such subjects and channels of
blessing as we have described, but were to a large extent carnal,
having only that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
What then? Had they still a title to be recognised as the
children of the covenant, and a right, as such, to the temporal
inheritance connected with it ? By no means. This were sub
stantially to make void God s ordinance, which could not, any
more than His other ordinances, be merely outward. It arises
from His essential nature, as the spiritual and holy God, that He
should ever require from His people what is accordant with His
own character ; and that when He appoints outward signs and
ordinances, it is only with a view to spiritual and moral ends.
Where the outward alone exists, He cannot own its validity.
Christ certainly did not. For, when arguing with the Jews of
His own day, He denied on this very ground that their circum
cision made them the children of Abraham : they were not of
his spirit, and did not perform his works ; and so, in Christ s
account, their natural connection both with Abraham and with
the covenant went for nothing. (John viii. 34-44.) Their
circumcision was a sign without any signification. And if so
then, it must equally have been so in former times. The chil
dren of Israel had no right to the benefits of the covenant
merely because they had been outwardly circumcised ; nor were
any promises made to them simply as the natural seed of Abra
ham. Both elements had to meet in their condition, the natural
368 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
and the spiritual ; the spiritual, however, more especially, and
the natural only as connected with the spiritual, and a means
for securing it. Hence Moses urged them so earnestly to cir
cumcise their hearts, as absolutely necessary to their getting the
fulfilment of what was promised (Deut. x. 16) ; and when the
people as a whole had manifestly not done this, circumcision
itself, the sign of the covenant, was suspended for a season, and
the promises of the covenant were held in abeyance, till they
should come to learn aright the real nature of their calling.
(Josh. v. 3-9.) Throughout, it was the election within the
election who really had the promises and the covenants ; and
none but those in whom, through the special working of God s
grace, nature was sanctified and raised to another position than
itself could ever have attained, were entitled to the blessing. If
in the land of Canaan, they existed by sufferance merely, and
not by right.
The bearing of all this on the ordinance of Christian baptism
cannot be overlooked, but it may still be mistaken. The rela
tion between circumcision and baptism is not properly that of
type and antitype ; the one is a symbolical ordinance as well as
the other, and both alike have an outward form and an inward
reality. It is precisely in such ordinances that the Old and the
New dispensations approach nearest to each other, and, we might
almost say, stand formally upon the same level. The difference
does not so much lie in the ordinances themselves, as in the
comparative amount of grace and truth respectively exhibited in
them necessarily less in the earlier, and more in the later. The
difference in external form was in each case conditioned by the
circumstances of the time. In circumcision it bore respect to
the propagation of offspring, as it was through the production of
a seed of blessing that the covenant, in its preparatory form,
was to attain its realization. But when the seed in that respect
had reached its culminating point in Christ, and the objects of
the covenant were no longer dependent on natural propagation
of seed, but were to be carried forward by spiritual means and
influences used in connection with the faith of Christ, the
external ordinance was fitly altered, so as to express simply a
change of nature and state in the individual that received it.
Undoubtedly the New Testament form less distinctly recognises
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 369
the connection between parent and child we should rather say,
does not of itself recognise that connection at all : so much
ought to be frankly conceded to those who disapprove of the
practice of infant baptism, and will be conceded by all whose
object is to ascertain the truth rather than contend for an
opinion.
On the other hand, however, if we look, not to the form, but
to the substance, which ought here, as in other things, to be
chiefly regarded, we perceive an essential agreement such as
is, indeed, marked by the Apostle, when, with reference to the
spiritual import of baptism, he calls it " the circumcision of
Christ." (Col. ii. 11.) So far from being less indicative of a
change of nature in the proper subjects of it, circumcision was
even more so ; in a more obvious and palpable manner it bespoke
the necessity of a deliverance from the native corruption of the
soul in those who should become the true possessors of blessing.
Hence the Apostle makes use of the earlier rite to explain the
symbolical import of the later, and describes the spiritual change
indicated and required by it, as " a putting-off of the body of
the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ," and " having
the uncircumcision of the flesh quickened together with Christ."
It would have been travelling entirely in the wrong direction, to
use such language for purposes of explanation in Christian times,
if the ordinance of circumcision had not shadowed forth this
spiritual quickening and purification even more palpably and
impressively than baptism itself ; and shadowed it forth, not
prospectively merely for future times, but immediately and per
sonally for the members of the Old Covenant. For, by the
terms of the covenant, these were ordained to be, not types of
blessing only, but also partakers of blessing. The good contem
plated in the covenant was to have its present commencement in
their experience, as well as in the future a deeper foundation and
a more enlarged development. And the outward putting away
of the filth of the flesh in circumcision could never have sym
bolized a corresponding inward purification for the members of
the New Covenant, if it had not first done this for the members
of the Old. The shadow must have a substance in the one case
as well as in the other.
Such being the case as to the essential agreement between
VOL. I. 2 A
370 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the two ordinances, an important element for deciding in regard
to the propriety of infant baptism may still be derived from the
practice established in the rite of circumcision. The grand
principle of connecting parent and child together for the attain
ment of spiritual objects, and marking the connection by an
impressive signature, was there most distinctly and broadly sanc
tioned. And if the parental bond and its attendant obligations
be not weakened, but rather elevated and strengthened, by the
higher revelations of the Gospel, it would be strange indeed if
the liberty at least, nay, the propriety and right, if not the
actual obligation, to have their children brought by an initiatory
ordinance under the bond of the covenant, did not belong to
parents under the Gospel. The one ordinance no more than the
other ensures the actual transmission of the grace necessary to
effect the requisite change ; but it exhibits that grace on the
part of God pledges it and takes the subject of the ordinance
bound to use it for the accomplishment of the proper end.
Baptism does this now, as circumcision did of old ; and if it was
done in the one case through the medium of the parent to the
child, one does not see why it may not be done now, unless
positively prohibited, in the other. But since this is matter of
inference rather than of positive enactment, those who do not
feel warranted to make such an application of the principle of
the Old Testament ordinance to the New, should unquestionably
be allowed their liberty of thought and action ; if only, in the
vindication of that liberty, they do not seek to degrade circum
cision to a mere outward and political distinction, and thereby
break the continuity of the Church through successive dispensa
tions. 1
1 It is not necessary to do more than notice the statements of Coleridge
regarding circumcision (Aids to Reflection, i., p. 296), in which, as in some
others on purely theological subjects in his writings, one is even more struck
with the unaccountable ignoring of fact displayed in the deliverance given,
than with the tone of assurance in which it is announced. " Circumcision
was no sacrament at all, but the means and mark of national distinction.
Nor was it ever pretended that any grace was conferred with it,
or that the right was significant of any inward or spiritual operation."
Delitzsch, however, so far coincides with this view, as to deny (Genesis
Ausgelegt, p. 281) the sacramental character of circumcision. But he does
so on grounds that, in regard to circumcision, will not stand examination ;
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 371
3. But we must now hasten to the third stage of Abraham s
career, which presents him on a still higher moral elevation
than he has yet reached, and view him as connected with the
sacrifice of Isaac. Between the establishment of the covenant
by the rite of circumcision, and this last stage of development,
there were not wanting occasions fitted to bring out the pre
eminently holy character of his calling, and the dependence on
his maintaining this toward God of what God should be and do
toward him. This appears in the order he received from God
to cast Ishmael out of his house, when the envious, mocking
spirit of the youth too clearly showed that he had not the heart
of a true child of the covenant, and would not submit aright to
the arrangements of God concerning it. It appears also in
the free and familiar fellowship to which Abraham was ad
mitted with the three heavenly visitants, whom Ire entertained
in his tent on the plains of Mamre, and the disclosure that was
and, in regard to baptism, evidently proceed on the high Lutheran view of
the sacraments. He says, that while circumcision had a moral and mystical
meaning, and was intended ever to remind the subject of it of his near
relation to Jehovah, and his obligation to walk worthy of this, still it was
u no vehicle of heavenly grace, of Divine sanctifying power," " in itself a
mere sign without substance," as if it were ever designed to be ly itself!
or as if baptism with water, by itself, were anything more than a mere
sign ! Circumcision being stamped upon Abraham and his seed as the sign
of the covenant, and so far identified with the covenant, in the appointment
of God, must have been a sign on God s part as well as theirs ; it could not
otherwise have been the sign of a covenant, or mutual compact ; it must,
therefore, have borne respect to what God promised to be to His people,
not less than what His people were to be to Him. This is manifestly what
the Apostle means, when he calls it a seal which Abraham received, a pledge
from God of the ratification of the covenant, and consequently of all the
grace that covenant promised. It had otherwise been no privilege to be
circumcised ; since to be bound to do righteously, without being entitled to
look for grace corresponding, is simply to be placed under an intolerable
yoke. I leave this latter statement unaltered, notwithstanding that Mr
Litton points me (Bampton Lectures, p. oil) to Acts xv. 10 ; Heb. ii. 15 ;
and Gal. iv. 24, in proof that the apostles did actually regard the elder
covenant as an intolerable yoke ; for it seems plain to me, that such passages
point to the covenant of law rather than the covenant of promise, with
which circumcision in its original appointment and proper character was
associated. I have much pleasure, however, in substituting here, for what
was given in a previous edition, the following remarks of Mr Litton, re
garding the connection between circumcision and baptism, which substan-
372 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
made to him of the Divine counsel respecting Sodom and
Gomorrah, expressly on the ground that the Lord " knew he
would command his children and his household after him to
keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." And
most of all it appears in the pleading of Abraham for the pre
servation of the cities of the plain, a pleading based upon the
principles of righteousness, that the Judge of all the earth
would do right, and would not destroy the righteous with the
wicked, and a pleading that proved in vain only from there
not being found the ten righteous persons in the place men
tioned in the patriarch s last supposition. So that the awful
scene of desolation which the region of those cities afterwards
presented on the very borders of the land of Canaan, stood
perpetually before the Jewish people, not only as a monument
of the Divine indignation against sin, but also as a witness that
the father of their nation would have sought their preservation
tially coincide with what has been stated : " In a looser sense, circumcision
may be considered as a sacrament. For baptism, too, is a symbolical
ordinance, perpetually reminding the Christian what his vocation is. Cir
cumcision, moreover, was to the Jewish infant a seal, or formal confirma
tion, of the promises of God, first made to the patriarch Abraham, and then
to his seed ; just as baptism now seals to us the higher promises of the
evangelical covenant." Then, after noticing a change of view in regard to
the place held by circumcision in the Old Covenant, he says : " The (natural)
birth of the Jew, which was the real ground of his privileges, answers to
the new birth of the Christian in its inner or essential "aspect ; while cir
cumcision, the rite by which the Jewish infant became a publicly acknow
ledged member of the theocracy, corresponds to baptism, or the new birth
in its external aspect, to which sacrament the same function, of visibly in
corporating in the Church, now belongs." It is, therefore, not? in respect to
the soul s inward and personal state, that either ordinance can properly be
called initiatory (for in that respect blessing might be had initially with
out the one as well as the other), but in respect to the person s recognised
connection with the corporate society of those who are subjects of blessing.
This begins now with baptism, and it began of old with circumcision : till
the individual was circumcised, he was not reckoned as belonging to that
society ; and if passing the proper time for the ordinance without it, he was
to be held as ipso facto cut off. Under both covenants there is an inward
and an outward bond of connection with the peculiar blessing : the inward,
faith in God s word of promise (of old, faith in God ; now more specifically,
faith in Christ) ; the outward, circumcision formerly, now baptism. Yet
the two in neither case should be viewed as altogether apart, but the one
should rather be held as the formal expression and seal of the other.
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 373
also from a like judgment only on the principles of righteous
ness, and would have even ceased to plead in their behalf, if
righteousness should sink as low among them as he ultimately
supposed it might have come in Sodom.
But the topstone of Abraham s history as the spiritual head
of a seed of blessing, is only reached in the Divine command to
offer up Isaac, and the obedience which the patriarch rendered
to it. " Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou
lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him
there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains, which I
will tell thee of." That Abraham understood this command
rightly, when he supposed it to mean a literal offering of his
son upon the altar, and not, as Ilengstenberg and Lange have
contended, a simple dedication to a religious life, needs no
particular proof. Had anything but a literal surrender been
meant, the mention of a burnt-offering as the character in
which Isaac was to be offered to God, and of a mountain in
Moriah as the particular spot where the offering was to be pre
sented, would have been entirely out of place. But why should
such a demand have been made of Abraham ? And what pre
cisely were the lessons it was intended to convey to his posterity,
or its typical bearing on future times !
In the form given to the required act, special emphasis is
laid on the endeared nature of the object demanded : thine only
son, and the son whom thou lovest. It was, therefore, a trial in
the strongest sense, a trial of Abraham s faith, whether it was
capable of such implicit confidence in God, such profound re
gard to His will, and such self-denial in His service, as at the
Divine bidding to give up the best and dearest what in the
circumstances must even have been dearer to him than his own
life. Not that God really intended the surrender of Isaac to
death, but only the proof of such a surrender in the heart of
His servant ; and such a proof could only have been found in
an unconditional command to sacrifice, and an unresisting
compliance with the command up to the final step in the
process. This, however, was not all. In the command to per
form such a sacrifice, there was a tempting as well as a trying
of Abraham ; since the thing required at his hands seemed to
be an enacting of the most revolting rite of heathenism; and,
374 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
at the same time, to war with the oracle already given concern
ing Isaac, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." According to
this word, God s purpose to bless was destined to have its ac
complishment especially and peculiarly through Isaac ; so that
to slay such a son appeared like slaying the very word of God,
and extinguishing the hope of the world. And yet, in heart
and purpose at least, it must be done. It was no freak of arbi
trary power to command the sacrifice ; nor was it done merely
with the view of raising the patriarch to a kind of romantic
moral elevation. It had for its object the outward and palpable
exhibition of the great truth, that God s method of working in
the covenant of grace must have its counterpart in man s. The
one must be the reflex of the other. God, in blessing Abraham,
triumphs over nature ; and Abraham triumphs after the same
manner in proportion as he is blessed. He receives a special
gift from the grace of God, and he freely surrenders it again
to Him who gave it. He is pre-eminently honoured by God s
word of promise, and he is ready in turn to hazard all for its
honour. And Isaac, the child of promise, the type in his out
ward history of all who should be proper subjects or channels
of blessing, also must concur in the act : on the altar he must
sanctify himself to God, as a sign to all who would possess the
higher life in God, how it implies and carries along with it a
devout surrender of the natural life to the service and glory of
Him who has redeemed it.
We have no account of the workings of Abraham s mind,
when going forth to the performance of this extraordinary act
of devotedness to God ; and the record of the transaction is,
from the very simplicity with which it narrates the facts of
the case, the most touching and impressive in Old Testament
history. But we are informed on inspired authority, that the
principle on which he acted, and which enabled him as, indeed,
it alone could enable him to fulfil such a service, was faith :
" By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac : and
he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called :
accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Heb.
xi. 17-19.) His noblest act of obedience was nothing more
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 375
than the highest exercise and triumph of his faith. It was this
which removed the mountains that stood before him, and hewed
out a path for him to walk in. Grasping with firm hand that
word of promise which assured him of a numerous seed by the
line of Isaac, and taught by past experience to trust the faith
fulness of Him who gave it even in the face of natural impossi
bilities, his faith enabled him to see light where all had other
wise been darkness to hope while in the veiy act of destroying
the great object of his hope. I know so he must have argued
with himself that the word of God, which commands this
sacrifice, is faithfulness and truth ; and though to stretch forth
my hand against this child of promise is apparently destructive
to my hopes, yet I may safely risk it, since He commands it
from whom the gift and the promise were alike received. It
is as easy for the Almighty arm to give me back my son from
the domain of death, as it was at first to bring him forth out of
the dead womb of Sarah ; and what lie can do, His declared
purpose makes me sure that He will, and even must. Thus
nature, even in its best and strongest feelings, was overcome,
and the sublimest heights of holiness were reached, simply
because faith had struck its roots so deeply within, and had so
closely united the soul of the patriarch to the mind and perfec
tions of Jehovah.
This high surrender of the human to the Divine, and holy
self-consecration to the will and service of God, was beyond all
doubt, like the other things recorded in Abraham s life, of the
nature of a revelation. It was not intended to terminate in the
patriarch and his son, but in them, as the sacred roots of the
covenant people, to show in outward and corporeal representa
tion what in spirit ought to be perpetually repeating itself in
their individual and collective history. It proclaimed to them
through all their generations, that the covenant required of its
members lives of unshrinking and devoted application to the
service of God yielding to no weak misgivings or corrupt so
licitations of the flesh staggering at no difficulties presented by
the world ; and also that it rendered such a course possible by
the ground and scope it afforded for the exercise of faith in the
sustaining grace and might of Jehovah. And undoubtedly, as
the human here was the reflex of the Divine, whence it drew its
376 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
source and reason, so inversely, and as regards the ulterior ob
jects of the covenant, the Divine might justly be regarded as
imaged in the human. An organic union between the two was
indispensable to the effectual accomplishment of the promised
good ; and the seed in which the blessing of Heaven was to
concentrate, and from which it was to flow throughout the
families of the earth, must on the one side be as really the Son
of God, as on the other he was to be the offspring of Abraham.
Since, therefore, the two lines were ultimately to meet in one,
and that one, by the joint operation of the Divine and human,
was once for all to make good the provision of blessing promised
in the covenant, it was meet, and it may reasonably be sup
posed, was one end of the transaction, that they should be seen
from the first to coalesce in principle ; that the surrender Abra
ham made of his son, for the world s good, in the line after the
flesh, and the surrender willingly made by that son himself at
the altar of God, was designed to foreshadow in the other and
higher line the wonderful gift of God in yielding up His Son,
and the free-will offering and consecration of the Son Himself
to bring in eternal life for the lost. Here, too, as the things
done were in tlieir nature unspeakably higher than in the other,
so were they thoroughly and intensely real in their character.
The representative in the Old becomes the actual in the New ;
and the sacrifice performed there merely in the spirit, passes
here into that one full and complete atonement, which for ever
perfects them that are sanctified. 1
In the preparatory and typical line, however, Abraham s con
duct on this occasion was the perfect exemplar which all should
have aspired to copy. He stood now on the highest elevation of
the righteousness of faith; and to show the weight God attached
to that righteousness, and how inseparably it was to be bound up
1 Presented as it is above, the typical relationship is both quite natural
and easy of apprehension, if only one keeps distinctly in view the neces
sary connection between the Divine and the human for accomplishing the
ends of the covenant, a connection influential and co-operative as regards
the immediate ends, organic and personal as regards the ultimate. That
the action was, as Warburton represents, a scenical representation of the
death and resurrection of Christ, appointed expressly to satisfy the mind of
Abraham, who longed to see Christ s day, is to present it in a fanciful and
arbitrary light ; and what is actually recorded requires to be supplemented
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 377
with the provisions of the covenant, the Lord consummated the
transaction by a new ratification of the covenant. After the
angel of Jehovah had stayed the hand of Abraham from slaying
Isaac, and provided the ram for a burnt-offering, he again ap
peared and spake to Abraham, " By Myself have I sworn, saith
the Lord ; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son ; that in blessing I will bless
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore ; and
thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies : and in thy seed
shall the nations of the earth be blessed ; because thou hast
obeyed My voice." The things promised, it will be observed,
are precisely the things which God had already of His own
goodness engaged in covenant to bestow upon Abraham : these,
indeed, to their largest extent, but still no more, no other than
these, a seed numerous as the sand upon the sea-shore or the
stars of heaven, shielded from the malice of enemies, itself
blessed, and destined to be the channel of blessing to all nations.
But it is also to be observed, that while the same promises
of good are renewed, they are now connected with Abraham s
surrender to the will of God, and are given as the reward of
his obedience. To render this more clear and express, it is
announced both at the beginning and the end of the address :
u Because thou hast done this . . . because thou hast obeyed My
voice." And even afterwards, when the covenant was established
with Isaac, an explicit reference is made to the same thing. The
Lord said, Pie would perform the oath He had sworn to Abra
ham, " because he obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My
commandments, My statutes, and My laws." (Gen. xxvi. 5.)
What could have more impressively exhibited the truth, that
though the covenant, with all its blessings, was of grace on
by much that is not. Nor do we need to lay any stress on the precise
locality where the offering was appointed to be made. It must always
remain somewhat doubtful whether the " land of Moriah" was the same
with " Mount Moriah," on which the temple was afterwards built, as the
one, indeed, is evidently a more general designation than the other; and, at
all events, it was not on that mount that the one great sacrifice of Christ
was offered. And the minor circumstances, excepting in so far as they
indicate the implicit obedience of the father and the filial submission and
devotedness of the son, should be considered as of no moment.
378 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
the part of God, and to be appropriated by faith on the part of
men, yet the good promised should not be actually conferred by
Him, unless the faith should approve itself by deeds of righteous
ness ! Their faith would otherwise be accounted dead, the mere
semblance of what it should be. And as if to bind the two more
solemnly and conspicuously together, the Lord takes this occa
sion to superadd His oath to the covenant, not to render the
word of promise more sure in itself, but to make it more palpably
sure to the heirs of promise, and to deepen in them the impres
sion, that nothing should fail of all that had been spoken, if only
their faith and obedience should accord with that now exhibited !
II. We must leave to the reflection of our readers the
application of this to Christian times and relations, which is
indeed so obvious as to need no particular explanation ; and we
proceed to take a rapid glance at the leading features of the
other branch of the subject that which concerns Jacob and
the twelve patriarchs. This forms the continuation of what
took place in the lives of Abraham and Isaac, and a continua
tion not only embodying the same great principles, but also
carrying them forward with more special adaptation to the
prospective condition of the Israelites as a people. Towards
the close of the patriarchal period, the covenant, even in its
more specific line of operations, began to widen and expand, to
rise more from the particular to the general, to embrace a family
circle, and that circle the commencement of a future nation.
And the dealings of God were all directed to the one great end
of showing, that while this people should stand alike outwardly
related to the covenant, yet their real connection with its pro
mises, and their actual possession of its blessings, should infal
libly turn upon their being followers in faith and holiness of
the first fathers of their race.
Unfortunately, the later part of Isaac s life did not alto
gether fulfil the promise of the earlier. Knowing little of the
trials of faith, he did not reach high in its attainments. And
in the more advanced stage of his history he fell into a state
of general feebleness and decay, in which the moral but too
closely corresponded with the bodily decline. Notwithstanding
the very singular and marked exemplification that had been
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 379
given in his own case of the pre-eminent respect had in the
covenant to something higher than nature, lie failed so much in
discernment, that he was disposed only to make account of the
natural element in judging of the respective states and fortunes
of his sons. To the neglect of a Divine oracle going before,
and the neglect also of the plainest indications afforded by the
subsequent behaviour of the sons themselves, he resolved to
give the more distinctive blessing of the covenant to Esau, in
preference to Jacob, and so to make him the more peculiar
type and representative of the covenant. In this, however, he
was thwarted by the overruling providence of God not, indeed,
without sin on the part of those who were the immediate agents
in accomplishing it, but yet so as to bring out more clearly
and impressively the fact, that mere natural descent and priority
of birth was not here the principal, but only the secondary
thing, and that higher and more important than any natural
advantage was the grace of God manifesting itself in the faith
and holiness of men. Jacob, therefore, though the youngest
by birth, yet from the first the child of faith, of spiritual
desire, of heartfelt longings after the things of God, ultimately
the man of deep discernment, ripened experience, prophetic
insight, wrestling and victorious energy in the Divine life he
must stand first in the purpose of Heaven, and exhibit in his
personal career a living representation of the covenant, as to
what it properly is and really requires. Nay, opportunity was
taken from his case, as the immediate founder of the Israclitish
nation, to begin the covenant history anew ; and starting, as it
were, from nothing in his natural position and circumstances, it
was shown how God, by His supernatural grace and sufficiency,
could vanquish the difficulties in the way, and more than com
pensate for the loss of nature s advantages. In reference partly
to this instructive portion of Jacob s history, and to renew upon
their minds the lesson it was designed to teach, the children of
O
Israel were appointed to go to the priest in after times with
their basket of first-fruits in their hand, and the confession in
their mouth, A Syrian ready to perish was my father. (Dent.
xxvi. 5.) It was clear, even as noon-day, that all Jacob had to
distinguish him outwardly from others, the sole foundation and
spring of his greatness, was the promise of God in the covenant,
380 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
received by him in humble faith, and taken as the ground of
prayerful and holy striving. As the head of the covenant people,
he was not less really, though by a different mode of operation,
the child of Divine grace and power, than his father Isaac.
And as his whole life, in its better aspects, was a lesson to his
posterity respecting the superiority of the spiritual to the merely
natural element in things pertaining to the covenant of God;
so, when his history drew toward its close, there were lessons of
a more special kind, and in the same direction, pressed with
singular force and emphasis upon his family.
It was a time when such were peculiarly needed. The
covenant was now to assume more of a communal aspect. It
was to have a national membership and representation, as the
more immediate designs which God sought to accomplish by
me^ns of it could not be otherwise effected. Jacob was the
last separate impersonation of its spirit and character. His
family, in their collective capacity, were henceforth to take this
position. But they had first to learn, that they could take it
only if their natural relation to the covenant was made the
means of forming them to its spiritual characteristics, and fitting
them for the fulfilment of its righteous ends. They must even
learn, that their individual relation to the covenant in these
respects should determine their relative place in the administra
tion of its affairs and interests. And for this end, Reuben, the
first-born, is made to lose his natural pre-eminence, because, like
Esau, he presumed upon his natural position, and in the lawless
impetuosity of nature broke through the restraints of filial piety.
Judah, on the other hand, obtains one of the prerogatives
Reuben had lost Judah, who became so distinguished for that
filial piety as to hazard his own life for the sake of his father.
Simeon and Levi, in like manner, are all but excluded from
the blessings of the covenant on account of their unrighteous
and cruel behaviour : a curse is solemnly pronounced upon
their sin, and a mark of inferiority stamped upon their condi
tion ; while, again, at a later period, and for the purpose still of
showing how the spiritual was to rule the natural, rather than
the natural the spiritual, the curse in the case of Levi was
turned into a blessing. The tribe was, indeed, according to the
word of Jacob, scattered in Israel, and was thereby rendered
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 381
politically weak ; but the more immediate reason of the scatter
ing was the zeal and devotedness which the members of that
tribe had exhibited in the wilderness, on account of which they
were dispersed as lights among Israel, bearing on them the
more peculiar and sacred distinctions of the covenant thereby
acquiring a position of great moral strength. Most strikingly,
however, does the truth break forth in connection with Joseph,
who in the earlier history of the family was the only proper
representative of the covenant. He was the one child of God
in the family, though, with a single exception, the least and
youngest of its members. God, therefore, after allowing the
contrast between him and the rest to be sharply exhibited,
ordered His providence so as to make him pre-eminently the
son of blessing. The faith and piety of the youth draw upon
him the protection and loving-kindness of Heaven wherever he
goes, and throw a charm around everything he does. At length
he rises to the highest position of honour and influence blessed
most remarkably himself, and on the largest scale made a
blessing to others the noblest and most conspicuous personal
embodiment of the nature of the covenant, as first rooting itself
in the principles of a spiritual life, and then diffusing itself in
healthful and blessed energy on all around. At the same time,
and as a foil to set off more brightly the better side of the truth
represented in him, while he was thus seen riding upon the high
places of the earth, his unsanctified brethren appear famishing
for want; the promised blessing of the covenant has almost
dried up in their experience, because they possessed so little of
the true character of children of the covenant. And when the
needful relief comes, they have to be indebted for it to the hand
of him in whom that character is most luminously displayed.
Nay, in the very mode of getting it, they are conducted through
a train of humiliating and soul-stirring providences, tending to
force on them the conviction that they were in the hands of an
angry God, and to bring them to repentance of sin and amend
ment of life. So that, by the time they are raised to a position
of honour and comfort, and settled as covenant patriarchs in
Egypt, they present the appearance of men chastened, subdued,
brought to the knowledge of God, fitted each to take his place
among the heads of the future covenant people; while the
382 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
double portion, which Keuben lost by his iniquity, descends on
him who was, under God, the instrument of accomplishing so
much good for them and for others.
And here, again, we cannot but notice that when the chosen
family were in the process of assuming the rudimentary form
of that people through whom salvation and blessing were to
come to other kindreds of the earth, the beginning was rendered
prophetic of the end ; the operations both of the evil and the
good in the infancy of the nation, were made to image the pro
spective manifestation that was to be given of them when the
things of the Divine kingdom should rise to their destined
maturity. Especially in the history of Joseph, the representa
tive of the covenant in its earlier stage, was there given a won
derful similitude of Him in whom its powers and blessings
were to be concentrated in their entire fulness, and who was
therefore in all things to obtain the pre-eminence among His
brethren. Like Joseph, the Son of Mary, though born among
brethren after the flesh, was treated as an alien ; envied and
persecuted even from His infancy, and obliged to find a tem
porary refuge in the very land that shielded Joseph from the
fury of his kindred. His supernatural and unblemished right
eousness continually provoked the malice of the world, and, at
the same time, received the most unequivocal tokens of the
Divine favour and blessing. That very righteousness, exhibited
amid the greatest trials and indignities, in the deepest debase
ment, and in worse than prison-house affliction, procured His
elevation to the right hand of power and glory, from which He
was thenceforth to dispense the means of salvation to the world.
In the dispensation, too, of these blessings, it was the hardened
and cruel enmity of His immediate kindred which opened the
door of grace and blessing to the heathen ; and the sold, hated,
and crucified One becomes a Prince and Saviour to the nations
of the earth, while His famishing brethren reap in bitterness of
soul the fruit of their inexcusable hatred and malice. Nor is
there a door of escape to be found for them until they come to
acknowledge, in contrition of heart, that they are verily guilty
concerning their brother. Then, however, looking unto Him
whom they have pierced, and owning Him as, by God s appoint
ment, the one channel of life and blessing, their hatred shall be
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 383
repaid with love, and they shall be admitted to share in the
inexhaustible fulness that is treasured up in Christ.
What a succession, then, of lessons for the children of the
covenant in regard to what constituted their greatest danger
lessons stretching through four generations ever varying in
their precise form, yet always bearing most directly and impres
sively upon the same point writing out on the very foundations
of their history, and emblazoning on the banner of their covenant,
the important truth, that the spiritual element was ever to be
held the thing of first and most essential moment, and that the
natural was only to be regarded as the channel through which
the other was chiefly to come, and the safeguard by which it
was to be fenced and kept! From the first the call of God made
itself known as no merely outward distinction ; and the cove
nant that grew out of it, instead of being but a formal bond of
interconnection between its members and God, was framed
especially to meet the spiritual evil in the world, and required
as an indispensable condition, a sanctified heart in all who were
to experience its blessings, and to work out its beneficent results.
How, indeed, could it be otherwise? How could the spiritual
Jehovah, who has, from the first creation of man upon the earth,
been ever manifesting Himself as the Holy One, and directing
His administration so as to promote the ends of righteousness,
enter into a covenant of life and blessing on any other principle ?
It is impossible as impossible as it is for the unchangeable God
to act contrary to His nature that the covenant of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant of grace and blessing, which
7 O O/
embraces in its bosom Christ Himself, and the benefits of Plis
eternal redemption, could ever have contemplated as its real
members any but spiritual and righteous persons. And the
whole tenor and current of the Divine dealings in establishing
the covenant seem to have been alike designed and calculated to
shut up every thoughtful mind to the conclusion, that none but
such could either fulfil its higher purposes, or have an interest
in its more essential provisions.
What thus appears to be taught in the historical revelations
of God connected with the establishment of the covenant, is also
perpetually re-echoed in the later communications by His pro
phets. Their great aim, in the monitory part of their writings,
384 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
is to bring home to men s minds the conviction, that the cove
nant had pre-eminently in view moral ends, and that in so far
as the people degenerated from these, they failed in respect to
the main design of their calling. Let us point, in proof of this,
merely to the last of the prophets, that we may see how the
closing witness of the Old Covenant coincides with the testi
mony delivered at the beginning. In the second chapter of his
writings, the prophet Malachi, addressing himself to the corrup
tions of the time, as appearing first in the priesthood, and then
among the people generally, charges both parties expressly with
a breach of covenant, and a subversion of the ends for which it
was established. In regard to the priests, he points to their
ancestral holiness in the personified tribe of Levi, and says,
" My covenant was with him of life and peace ; and I gave
them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was
afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth,
and iniquity was not found in his lips : he walked with Me in
peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. . . .
But ye are departed out of the way ; ye have caused many to
stumble at the law ; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
saith the Lord of Hosts. Therefore have I also made you con
temptible and base before all the people, according as ye have
not kept My ways, but have been partial in the law." In a
word, the covenant, in this particular branch of it, had been
made expressly on moral grounds and for moral ends ; and in
practically losing sight of these, the priests of that time had
made void the covenant, even though externally complying with
its appointments, and were consequently visited with chastise
ment instead of blessing. Then, in regard to the people, a
reproof is first of all administered on account of the unfaithful
ness, which had become comparatively common, in putting
away their Israelitish wives, and taking outlandish women in
their stead " the daughters of a strange god." This the pro
phet calls " profaning the covenant of their fathers." And then
pointing in this case, as in the former, to the original design
and purport of their covenant calling, he asks, in a question
which has been entirely misunderstood, from not being viewed
in relation to the precise object of the prophet, " And did not
He make one ? Yet had He the residue of the Spirit. And
THE SUBJECTS AND CHANNELS OF BLESSING. 385
wherefore one ? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore
take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against
the wife of his youth." The one, which God made, is not
Adam, nor Abraham, to either of whom the commentators refer
it, though the case of neither of them properly suits the point
more immediately in question. The oneness referred to is that
distinctive species of it on which the whole section proceeds as
its basis Israel s oneness as a family. God had chosen them
them alone of all the nations of the earth to be His peculiar
treasure. If He had pleased, He might have chosen more ; the
residue of the Spirit was still with Him, by no means exhausted
by that single effort. He could have either left them like others,
or chosen others besides them. But He did not; He made one,
one alone, to be peculiarly His own, setting it apart from the
rest. And wherefore that one ? Simply that He might have a
godly seed ; that they might be an holy people, and transmit the
true fear of God from generation to generation. How base,
then, how utterly subversive of God s pui-poses concerning them,
to act as if no such separation had taken place, to put away
their proper wives, and by heathenish alliances bring into the
bosom of their families the very defilement and corruption
against which God had especially called them to contend ! Such
was this prophet s understanding of the covenant made with the
fathers of the Israelitish people ; and no other view of it, we
venture to say, would ever have prevailed, if its nature had been
sought primarily in those fundamental records which describe
the procedure of God in bringing it originally into existence.
VOL. I.
2 B
SECTION SIXTH.
THE INHERITANCE DESTINED FOR THE HEIRS OF BLESSING.
THE covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was con
nected not only with a seed of blessing, but also with an inherit
ance of blessing destined for their possession. And in order to
get a correct view both of the immediate and of the ultimate
bearing of this part of the covenant promise, it is not less neces
sary than in the other case, to consider the specific object pro
posed in its relation to the entire scheme of God, and especially
to bear in mind, that it forms part of a series of arrangements
in which the particular or the individual was selected with a
view to the general, the universal. In respect to the good to be
inherited, as well as in respect to the persons who might be
called to inherit it, the end proposed on the part of God was
from the first of the most comprehensive nature ; and if for a
time there was an immediate narrowing of the field of promise,
it could be only for the sake of an ultimate expansion. To see
more distinctly the truth of this, it may be proper to take a brief
retrospect of the past.
From the outset, the earth, in its entire extent and compass,
was given for the domain and the heritage of man. He was
placed in paradise as his proper home. There he had the
throne of his kingdom, but not that he might be pent up within
that narrow region ; rather that he might from that, as the seat
of his empire and the centre of his operations, go forth upon
the world around, and bring it under his sway. His calling was
to multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; so that it
might become to its utmost bounds an extended and peopled
paradise. But when the fall entered, though the calling was not
withdrawn, nor the possession finally lost, yet man s relative
position was changed. He had now, not to work from paradise
as a rightful king and lord, but from the blighted outfield of
nature s barrenness to work as a servant, in the hope of ultimately
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 387
reaching a new and better paradise than he had lost. The first
promise of grace, and the original symbols of worship, viewed in
connection with the facts of history, out of which they grew,
presented him with the prospect of an ultimate recovery from
the evils of sin and death, and put him in the position of an
expectant through faith in God, and toil and suffering in the
flesh, of good things yet to come. The precise hope he cherished
respecting these good things, or the inheritance he actually looked
for, would at first naturally take shape in his imagination from
what he had lost. He would fancy, that though he must bear
the deserved doom for his transgression, and return again to
dust, yet the time would come, when, according to the revealed
mercy and loving-kindness of God, the triumph of the adversary
would be reversed, the dust of death would be again quickened
into life, and the paradise of delight be occupied anew, with
better hopes of continuance, and with enlarged dimensions suited
to its destined possessors. He could scarcely have expected
more with the scanty materials which faith and hope yet had
to build upon ; and with the grace revealed to him, he could
scarcely, if really standing in faith and hope, have expected less.
We deem it incredible, that with the grant of the earth so
distinctly made to man for his possession, and death so expressly
appointed as the penalty of his yielding to the tempter, he
should, as a subject of restoring grace, have looked for any other
domain as the result of the Divine work in his behalf, than the
earth itself, or for any other mode of entering on the recovered
possession of it, than through a resurrection from the dead. For
how should he have dreamt of a victory over evil in anv other
region than that where the evil had prevailed ? Or how could
the hope of restitution have formed itself in his bosom, excepting
as a prospective reinstatement in the benefits he had forfeited ?
A paradise such as he had originally occupied, but prepared
now for the occupation of redeemed multitudes, made to em
brace, it may be, the entire territory of the globe, wrested for
ever from the serpent s brood, and rendered through all its
borders beautiful and good : that, and nothing else, we conceive,
must have been what the first race of patriarchal believers hoped
and waited for, as the objective portion of good reserved for
them.
388 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
But in process of time the deluge came, changing to a con
siderable extent the outward appearance of the earth, and in
certain respects also the government under which it was placed,
and so preparing the way for a corresponding change in the
hopes that were to be cherished of a coming inheritance. The
old world then perished, leaving no remnant of its original
paradise, any more than of the giant enormities which had
caused it to groan, as in pain to be delivered. But the new
world, cleansed and purified by the judgment of God, was now,
without limit or restriction, given to Noah, as the saved head of
mankind, that he might keep it for God, replenish and subdue
it, might work it, if such a thing were possible, into the condi
tion of a second paradise. It soon became too manifest, how
ever, that this was not possible ; and that the righteousness of
faith, of which Noah was heir, was still not that which could
prevail to banish sin and death, corruption and misery, from
the world. Another and better foundation yet remained to be
laid for such a blessed prospect to be realized. But the promise
of this very earth was nevertheless given for man s inheritance,
and with a promise securing it against any fresh destruction.
The needed righteousness was somehow to be wrought upon it,
and the region itself reclaimed so as to become a habitation of
blessing. This was now the heritage of good set before man
kind ; to have this realized was the object which they were
called of God to hope and strive for. And it was with this
object before them, an object, however, to which the events
immediately subsequent to the deluge did not seem to be
bringing them nearer, but rather to be carrying them more
remote, that the call to Abraham entered. This call, as we
have already seen, was of the largest and most comprehensive
nature as to the personal and subjective good it contemplated.
It aimed at the bestowal of blessing blessing, of course, in the
Divine sense, including the fullest triumph over sin and death
(for where these are, there can be but the beginnings or smaller
drops of blessing) ; and the bestowal of them on Abraham and
his lineal offspring, first and most copiously, but only as the
more effectual way of extending them to all the families of
mankind. The grand object of the covenant made with him
was to render the world truly blessed in its inhabitants, himself
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 389
forming the immediate starting-point of the design, which was
thereafter to grow and germinate, till the whole circle of
humanity were embraced in its beneficent provisions. But in
connection with this higher and grander object, there was
singled out a portion of the earth for the occupation of his im
mediate descendants in a particular line the more special line
of blessing ; and the conclusion is obvious, even before we go
into an examination of particulars, that unless this select portion
of the world were placed in utter disagreement with the higher
ends of the covenant, it must have been but a stepping-stone to
their accomplishment a kind of first-fruits of the proper good
the occupation of a part of the promised inheritance by a
portion of the heirs of blessing to image and prepare for the
inheritance of the whole by the entire company of the blessed.
The particular must here also have been for the sake of the
general, the universal, the ultimate.
Proceeding, however, to a closer view of the subject, we
notice, first, the region actually selected for a possession of an
inheritance to the covenant people. The land of Canaan oc
cupied a place in the ancient world that entirely corresponded
with the calling of such a people. It was of all lands the best
adapted for a people who were at once to dwell in comparative
isolation, and yet were to be in a position for acting with effect
upon the other nations of the world. Hence it was said by
Ezekiel, ch. v. 5, to have been "set in the midst of the countries
and the nations" the umbilicus terrarum. In its immediate
vicinity lay both the most densely-peopled countries and the
greater and more influential states of antiquity on the south,
Egypt, and on the north and east, Assyria and Babylon, the
Medes and the Persians. Still closer were the maritime states
of Tyre and Sidon, whose vessels frequented every harbour
then known to navigation, and whose colonies were planted in
each of the three continents of the old world. And the great
routes of inland commerce between the civilised nations of Asia
and Africa lay either through a portion of the territory itself,
or within a short distance of its borders. Yet, bounded as it
was on the west by the Mediterranean, on the south by the
desert, on the east by the valley of the Jordan with its two
seas of Tiberias and Sodom, and on the north by the tower
390 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
ing heights of Lebanon, the people who inhabited it might
justly be said to dwell alone, while they had on every side
points of contact with the most influential and distant nations.
Then the land itself, in its rich soil and plentiful resources,
its varieties of hill and dale, of river and mountain, its connec
tion with the sea on one side and with the desert on another,
rendered it a kind of epitome of the natural world, and fitted it
peculiarly for being the home of those who were to be a pattern
people to the nations of the earth. Altogether, it were im
possible to conceive a region more wisely selected, and in itself
more thoroughly adapted, for the purposes on account of which
the family of Abraham were to be set apart. If they were
faithful to their covenant engagements, they might there have
exhibited, as on an elevated platform, before the world the
bright exemplar of a people possessing the characteristics and
enjoying the advantages of a seed of blessing. And the finest
opportunities were, at the same time, placed within their reach
of proving in the highest sense benefactors to mankind, and
extending far and wide the interest of truth and righteous
ness. Possessing the elements of the world s blessing, they
were placed where these elements might tell most readily and
powerfully on the world s inhabitants ; and the present posses
sion of such a region was at once an earnest of the whole
inheritance, and, as the world then stood, an effectual step
towards its realization. Abraham, as the heir of Canaan, was
thus also "the heir of the world," considered as a heritage of
blessing. (Kom. iv. 13.)
But, next, let us mark the precise words of the promise to
Abraham concerning this inheritance. As it first occurs, it
runs, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father s house, unto a land that I will show thee ; and
I will make of thee a great nation," etc. (Gen. xii. 1). Then,
when he reached Canaan, the promise was renewed to him in
these terms: "Unto thy seed will I give this land" (ver. 7).
More fully and definitely, after Lot separated from Abraham,
was it again given : " Lift up now thine eyes, and look from
the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and east
ward, and westward : for all the land which thou seest, to thee
will I give it, and to thy seed for ever" (xiii. 14, 15). Again, in
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 391
ch. xv. 7, " I am the Lord that brought thce out of Ur of the
Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it ;" and toward the
close of the same chapter, it is said, " In the same day the Lord
made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river."
In ch. 17th, the promise was formally ratified as a covenant, and
sealed by the ordinance of circumcision ; and there the words
used respecting the inheritance are, " I will give unto thee, and
to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all
the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be
their God." We read only of one occasion in the life of Isaac,
when he received the promise of the inheritance ; and the words
then used were, " Unto thee, and unto thy seed, will I give all
these countries ; and I will perform the oath which I sware unto
Abraham thy father" (ch. xxvi. 3). Such also were the words
addressed to Jacob at Bethel, " I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou liest,
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ;" and in precisely the
same terms was the promise again made to Jacob many years
afterwards, as recorded in ch. xxxv. 12.
It cannot but appear striking, that to each one of these
patriarchs successively, the promise of the land of Canaan
should have been given, first to themselves, and then to their
posterity ; while, during their own lifetimes, they never were
permitted to get beyond the condition of strangers and pilgrims,
having no right to any possession within its borders, and obliged
to purchase at the marketable value a small field for a burying
ground. How shall we account for the promise, then, so uni
formly running, "to thee," and to "thy seed?" Some, as
Ainsworth and Bush, tell us that and here is the same as even,
to thee, even to thy seed ; as if a man were all one with his off
spring, or the name of the latter were but another name for
himself ! Gill gives a somewhat more plausible turn to it, thus :
" God gave Abram the title to it now, and to them the pos
session of it for future times ; gave him it to sojourn in now
where he pleased, and for his posterity to dwell in hereafter."
But the gift was the land for an inheritance, not for a place of
sojourn ; and a title, which left him personally without a foot s-
breadth of possession, could not be regarded in that light as any
392 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
real boon to him. Warburton, as usual, confronts the difficulty
more boldly : " In the literal sense, it is a promise of the land
of Canaan to Abraham and to his posterity ; and in this sense
it was literally fulfilled, though Abraham was never personally
in possession of it : since Abraham and his posterity, put col
lectively, signify the KACE OF ABRAHAM; and that race pos
sessed the land of Canaan. And surely God may be allowed
to explain His own promise : now, though He tells Abraham,
He would give him the land, yet, at the same time, He assures
him that it would be many hundred years before his posterity
should be put in possession of it (Gen. xv. 13, etc.). And as
concerning himself, that he should go to his fathers in peace,
and be buried in a good old age. Thus we see, that both what
God explained to be His meaning, and what Abraham under
stood Him to mean, was, that his posterity, after a certain time,
should be led into possession of the land." 1
But if this were really the whole meaning, the thought
naturally occurs, it is strange so plain a meaning should have
been so ambiguously expressed. Why not simply say, " thy
posterity," if posterity alone were intended, and so render un
necessary the somewhat awkward expedient of sinking the
patriarch s individuality in the history of his race ? Why, also,
should the promise have been renewed at a later period, with a
pointed distinction between Abraham and his posterity, yet with
an assurance that the promise was to him as well as to them :
" And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land
wherein thou art a stranger?" And why should Stephen have
made such special reference to the apparent incongruity between
the personal condition of Abraham and the promise given to
him, as if there were some further meaning in what was said
than lay on the surface : " He gave him none inheritance in it,
no, not so much as to set his foot on : yet He promised to give
it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him?" (Acts
vii. 5.)
We do not see how these questions can receive any satis
factory explanation, so long as no account is made of the per
sonal standing of the patriarchs in regard to the promise. And
there are others equally left without explanation. For no suf-
1 Legation of Moses, B. vi., sec. 3.
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 393
ficient reason can be assigned on that hypothesis, for the extreme
anxiety of Jacob and Joseph to have their bones carried to the
sepulchre of their fathers, in the land of Canaan betokening,
as it evidently seemed to do, a conviction, that to them also be
longed a personal interest in the land. Neither does it appear
how the fact of Abraham and his immediate offspring, " con
fessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,"-
which they did no otherwise, that we are aware of, than by
living as strangers and pilgrims in Canaan, should have proved
that they were looking for and desiring a better country, that is,
an heavenly one. And then, strange to think, if nothing more
were meant by the promise than the view now under considera
tion would imply, when the posterity who were to occupy the
land did obtain possession of it, we find the men of faith taking
up exactly the same confession as to their being strangers and
pilgrims in it, which was witnessed by their, forefathers, who
never had it in possession. Even after they became possessors,
it seems they were still, like their wandering ancestors, expect
ants and heirs of something better ; and faith had to be exercised,
lest they should lose the proper fulfilment of the promise (Ps.
xxxix. 12, xcv., cxix. 19 ; 1 Chron. xxix. 15). Surely if the
earthly Canaan had been the whole inheritance they were war
ranted to look for, after they were settled in it, the condition of
pilgrims and strangers no longer was theirs they had reached
their proper destiny they were dwelling in their appointed
home the promise had received its intended fulfilment.
These manifold difficulties and apparent inconsistencies will
vanish (and we see no other way in which they can be satis
factorily removed) by supposing, what is certainly in accord
ance with the tenor of revelation, that the promise of Canaan
as an inheritance to the people of God was part of a connected
and growing scheme of preparatory arrangements, which were
to have their proper outgoing and final termination in the esta
blishment of Christ s everlasting kingdom. Viewed thus, the
grant of Canaan must be regarded as a kind of second Eden, a
sacred region once more possessed in this fallen world God s
own land out of which life and blessing were to come for all
lands the present type of a world restored and blessed. And
if so, then we may naturally expect the following consequences
394 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
to have arisen : First, that whatever transactions may have
taken place concerning the actual Canaan, these would be all
ordered so as to subserve the higher design, in connection with
which the appointment was made ; and second, that as a sort of
veil must have been allowed meanwhile to hang over this ulti
mate design (for the issue of redemption could not be made
fully manifest till the redemption itself was brought in), a cer
tain degree of dubiety would attach to some of the things spoken
regarding it : these would appear strange or impossible, if viewed
only in reference to the temporary inheritance ; and would have
the effect with men of faith, as no doubt they were intended, to
compel the mind to break through the outward shell of the pro
mise, and contemplate the rich kernel enclosed within. Thus
the promise being made so distinctly and repeatedly to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, while personally they were allowed no settled
footing in the inheritance bestowed, could scarcely fail to im
press them, and their more pious descendants, with the convic
tion that higher and more important relations were included
under those in which they stood to the land of Canaan during
their earthly sojourn, and such as required another order of
things to fulfil them. They must have been convinced, that
for some great and substantial reason, not by a mere fiction of
the imagination, they had been identified by God with their
posterity as to their interest in the promised inheritance. And
so they must have felt shut up to the belief, that when God s
purposes were completely fulfilled, His word of promise would
be literally verified, and that their respective deaths should
ultimately be found to raise no effectual barrier in the way of
their actual share in the inheritance ; as the same God who
would have raised Isaac from the dead, had he been put to
death, to maintain the integrity of His word, was equally able,
on the same account, to raise them up.
Certainly the exact and perfect manner in which the other
line of promise that which respected a seed to Abraham was
fulfilled, gave reason to expect a fulfilment in regard to this
also, in the most proper and complete sense. Abraham did not
at first understand how closely God s words were to be inter
preted ; and after waiting in vain for some years for the pro
mised seed by Sarah, he began to think that God must have
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 395
meant an offspring that should be his only by adoption, and
seems to have thought of constituting the son of his steward his
heir. Then, when admonished of his error in entertaining such
a thought, and informed that the seed was to spring from his
own loins, lie acceded, after another long period of fruitless
waiting, to the proposal of Sarah regarding Hagar, under the
impression, that though he was to be the father of the seed, yet
it should not be by his proper wife ; the expected good was to
be obtained by a worldly expedient, and to become his only
through a tortuous policy. Here again, however, he was ad
monished of error, commanded to cease from such unworthy
devices, and walk in uprightness before God; was reminded
that He who made the promise was the Almighty God, to
whom, therefore, no impossibility connected with the age of
Sarah could be of any moment, and assured that the long pro
mised child was to be the son of him and his lawful spouse. 1
Now, when Abraham was thus taught to interpret one part of
the promise in the most exact and literal sense, how natural was
it to infer, that he must do the same also with the other part !
If, when God said, "Thou shalt be the father of a seed," it
became clear that the word could receive nothing short of the
strictest fulfilment ; what else, what less, could be expected,
when God said, " Thou shalt inherit this land," than that the
fulfilment was to be equally proper and complete? The provi
dence of God, which furnished such an interpretation in the
one case, could not but beget the conviction, that a similar
principle of interpretation was to be applied to the other ; and
that as the promise of the inheritance was given to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, as well as to their seed, so it should be made
good in their experience, not less than in that of their posterity.
No doubt, sucji a belief implied that there must be a resur
rection from the dead before the promise could be realized ; and
to those who conceive that immortality was altogether a blank
page to the eye of an ancient Israelite, the idea may seem to
carry its own refutation along with it. The Rabbis, however,
with all their blindness, seemed to have had juster, because
more scriptural, notions of the truth and purposes of God in
this respect. For, on Ex. vi. 4, the Talmud in Gemara, in
1 Gen. xvii. 1-17.
396 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTUEE.
reply to the question, " Where does the law teach the resurrec
tion of the dead?" thus distinctly answers, "In that place
where it is said, I have established My covenant with thee, to
give thee the land of Canaan. For it is not said with you., but
with thee (lit., yourselves)." 1 The same answer, substantially,
we are told, was returned by Rabbi Gamaliel, when the Sad-
ducees pressed him with a similar question. And in a passage
quoted by Warburton (B. vi., sec. 3) from Manasseh Ben-
Israel, we find the argument still more fully stated : " God said
to Abraham, I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the
land wherein thou art a stranger. But it appears that Abra
ham and the other patriarchs did not possess that land ; there
fore it is of necessity that they should be raised up to enjoy the
good promises, else the promises of God should be in vain and
false. So that we have here a proof, not only of the immor
tality of the soul, but also of the essential foundation of the law,
namely, the resurrection of the dead." It is surely not too
much to suppose, that what Jewish Rabbis could so certainly
draw from the word of God, may have been perceived by wise
and holy patriarchs. And the fact, of which an inspired writer
assures us, that Abraham so readily believed in the possible
resurrection of Isaac to a present life, is itself conclusive proof
that he would not be slow to believe in his own resurrection to
a future life, when the word of promise seemed no otherwise
capable of receiving its proper fulfilment. Indeed, the doctrine
of a resurrection from the dead not that of the immortality of
the soul is the form which the prospect of an after state of
being must have chiefly assumed in the minds of the earlier
believers, because that which most obviously and naturally grew
out of the promises made to them, as well as most accordant
with their native cast of thought. And nothing but the undue
influence of the Gentile philosophy on men s minds could have
led them to imagine, as they generally have done, the reverse to
have been the case.
In the writings of the Greeks and Romans, especially those
of the former, we find the distinction constantly drawn between
1 Sic habetur traditio Rab. Simai ; quo loco astruit Lex resurrectionem
mortuorum? Nempe ubi dicitur, " Aque etiam coustabilivi foedus meum
cum ipsis, ut dem ipsis terram Canaan." Non enim dicitur vobis sed ipsis.
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 397
matter and spirit, body and soul ; and the one generally repre
sented as having only elements of evil inhering in it, and the
other elements of good. So far from looking for the resurrec
tion of the body as necessary to the final well-being of men, full
and complete happiness was held to be impossible so long as the
soul was united to the body. Death was so far considered by
them a boon, that it emancipated the ethereal principle from its
prison-house ; and their visions of future bliss, when such visions
were entertained, presented to the eye of hope scenes of delight,
in which the disembodied spirit alone was to find its satisfaction
and repose. Hence it is quite natural to hear the better part of
them speaking with contempt of all that concerned the body,
looking upon death as a final as well as a happy release from
its vile affections, and promising themselves a perennial enjoy--
ment in the world of spirits. "In what way shall we bury
you?" said Crito to Socrates, immediately before his death.
" As you please," was the reply. " I cannot, my friends, per
suade Crito that I am the Socrates that is now conversing and
ordering everything that has been said ; but he thinks I am
that man whom he will shortly see a corpse, and asks how you
should bury me. But what I have all along been talking so
much about that when I shall have drunk the poison, I shall
no longer stay with you, but shall, forsooth, go away to certain
felicities of the blest this I seem to myself to have been saying
in vain, whilst comforting at the same time you and myself.
And in another part of the same dialogue (Phaxlo), after speak
ing of the impossibility of attaining to the true knowledge and
discernment of things, so long as the soul is kept in the lumpish
and impure body, he is represented as congratulating himself on
the prospect now immediately before him : " If these things are
true, there is much reason to hope, that he who has reached my
present position shall there soon abundantly obtain that for the
sake of which I have laboured so hard during this life ; so that
I encounter with a lively hope my appointed removal." No
doubt such representations give a highly coloured and far too
favourable view of the expectations which the more speculative
part of the heathen world cherished of a future state of being ;
for to most of them the whole was overshadowed with doubt and
uncertainty too often, indeed, the subject of absolute unbelief.
398 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
But in this respect the idea it presents is perfectly correct, that
so far as hope was exercised toward the future, it connected
itself altogether with the condition and destiny of the soul ; and
so abhorrent was the thought of a resurrection of the body to
their notions of future good, that Tertullian did not hesitate to
affirm the heresy, which denied that Christian doctrine, to be
the common result of the whole Gentile philosophy. 1
It was precisely the reverse with believers in ancient and
primitive times. Their prospects of a blessed immortality were
mainly associated with the resurrection of the body ; and the
dark period to them was the intermediate state between death
and the resurrection, which even at a comparatively late stage
in their history presented itself to their view as a state of gloom,
silence, and forgetfulness. They contemplated man, not in the
light in which an abstract speculative philosophy might regard
him, but in the more natural and proper one of a compound
being, to which matter as essentially belongs as spirit, and in
the well-being of which there must unite the happy condition
both of soul and body. Nay, the materials from which they
had to form their views and prospects of a future state of being
pointed most directly to the resurrection, and passed over in
silence the period intervening between that and death. Thus,
the primeval promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise
the head of the serpent, taught them to live in expectation of a
time when death should be swallowed up in victory ; for death
being the fruit of the serpent s triumph, what else could his
complete overthrow be than the reversal of death the resurrec
tion from the dead? So also the prophecy embodied in the
emblems of the tree of life, still standing in the midst of the
garden of Eden, with its way of approach meanwhile guarded
by the flaming s\vord, and possessed by the cherubim of glory
implying, that when the spoiler should be himself spoiled, and
the way of life should again be laid open for the children of
promise, they should have access to the food of immortality,
which they could only do by rising out of death and entering on
the resurrection state. The same conclusion grew, as we have
just seen, most naturally, and we may say inevitably, out of
1 Ut carnis restitutio negetur, de una omnium philosophorum scliola
sumitur, De Praesc. adv. Haeret. 7.
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 399
that portion of the promises made to the fathers of the Jewish
race, which assured them of a personal inheritance in the land
of Canaan ; for dying, as they did, without having obtained any
inheritance in it, how could the word of promise be verified to
them, but by their being raised from the dead to receive what it
warranted them to expect? In perfect accordance with these
earlier intimations, or, as they may fitly be called, fundamental
promises, we find, as we descend the stream of time, and listen to
the more express utterances of prophecy regarding the hopes of
the Church, that the grand point on which they are all made to
centre is the resurrection from the dead ; and it is so, doubtless,
for the reason, that as death is from the first represented as the
wages of sin, the evil pre-eminently under which humanity
groans, so the abolition of death by mortality being swallowed
up of life, is understood to carry in its train the restitution of
all things.
The Psalms, which are so full of the experiences and hopes
of David, and other holy men of old, while they express onjy
fear and discomfort in regard to the state after death, not unfre-
quently point to the resurrection from the dead as the great con
summation of desire and expectation : " My flesh also shall rest
in hope : for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt
Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Ps. xvi. 9, 10.
" Like sheep they are laid in the grave ; death shall feed on
them ; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the
morning ; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from
their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of
the grave; for He shall receive me" (xlix. 14, 15). The prophets,
who are utterly silent regarding the state of the disembodied
soul, speak still more explicitly of a resurrection from the dead,
and evidently connect with it the brightest hopes of the Church.
Thus Isaiah, " He will swallow up death in victory " (xxv. 8) ;
and again, " Thy dead men shall live, together with My dead
body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust"
(xxvi. 19). To the like effect, Hosea xiii. 14, "I will ransom them
from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death : O
death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction."
The vision of the dry bones, in the thirty-seventh chapter of
Ezekiel, whether understood of a literal resurrection from the
400 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
state of the dead, or of a figurative resurrection, a political re
suscitation from a downcast and degraded condition, strongly
indicates, in either case, the characteristic nature of their future
prospects. Then, finally, in Daniel we read, ch. xii., not only
that he was himself, after resting for a season among the dead,
" to stand in his lot at the end of the days," but also that at the
great crisis of the Church s history, when they should be for ever
rescued from the power of the enemy, " many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth should awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
Besides these direct and palpable proofs of a resurrection in
the Jewish Scriptures, and of the peculiar place it holds there,
the Rabbinical and modern Jews, it is well known, refer to
many others as inferentially teaching the same doctrine. That
the earlier Jews were not behind them, either in the importance
they attached to the doctrine, or in their persuasion of its fre
quent recurrence in the Old Testament Scriptures, we may
assuredly gather from the tenacity with which all but the Sad-
ducees evidently held it in our Lord s time, and the ready ap
proval which He met with when inferring it from the declaration
made to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob." It is nothing to the purpose, therefore, to allege, as
has often been done, against any clear or well-grounded belief
on the part of the ancient Jews regarding a future and immortal
state of being, such passages as speak of the darkness, silence,
and nothingness of the condition immediately subsequent to
death, and during the sojourn of the body in the tomb ; for
that was precisely the period in respect to which their light
failed them. Of a heathenish immortality, which ascribed to
the soul a perpetual existence separate from the body, and con
sidered its happiness, when thus separate, as the ultimate good
of man, they certainly knew and believed nothing. But we are
persuaded no tenet was more firmly and sacredly held among
them from the earliest periods of their history, than that of the
resurrection from the dead, as the commencement of a final and
everlasting portion of good to the people of God. And when
the Jewish doctors gave to the resurrection of the dead a place
among the thirteen fundamental articles of their faith, and cut
off from all inheritance in a future state of felicity those who
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 401
deny it, we have no reason to regard the doctrine as attaining
to a higher place in their hands, than it did with their fathers
before the Christian era. 1
There was something more, however, in the Jewish faith
concerning the resurrection, than its being simply held as an
article in their creed, and held to be a fact that should one day
be realized in the history of the Church. It stood in the closest
connection with the promise made to the fathers, as some of the
foregoing testimonies show, and especially with the work and
advent of Messiah. They not only believed that there would be
a resurrection of the dead, to a greater or less extent, when
Messiah came (see Lightfoot, Hor. Ileb. John i. 21, v. 25),
but that His work, especially as regards the promised inherit
ance, could only be carried into effect through the resurrection.
Levi" holds it as a settled point, that " the resurrection of the
dead will be very near the time of the redemption," meaning by
the redemption the full and final enjoyment of all blessing in
the land of promise, and that such is the united sense of all the
prophets who have spoken of the times of Messiah. In this,
indeed, he only expresses the opinion commonly entertained by
Jewish writers, who constantly assert that there will be a resur
rection of the whole Jewish race, to meet and rejoice with
Christ, when He comes to Jerusalem, and who often thrust
forward their views regarding it, when there is no proper oc
casion to do so. Thus, in Sohar, Genes, fol. 77, as quoted by
Schoettgen, II. p. 367, K. Nehorai is reported to have said, on
Abraham s speaking to his servant, Gen. xxiv. 2, " We are to
understand the servant of God, his senior domus. And who is
He ? Metatron (Messiah), who, as we have said, will bring
forth the souls from their sepulchres." But a higher authority
still may be appealed to. For the Apostle to the Gentiles thus
expresses and with evident approval as to the general principle
the mind of his countrymen in regard to the Messiah and the
resurrection : " I now stand and am judged for the hope of the
promise made of God unto our fathers : unto which promise our
twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to
come : for which hope s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the
1 See Appendix B.
2 Dissertations on the Prophecies of Old Test., vol. i., p. 56.
VOL. I. 2 C
402 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you,
that God should raise the dead ? " l The connection in which
the resurrection of the dead is here placed with the great
promise of a Messiah, for which the Jews are represented as
so eagerly and intently looking, evidently implies, that the two
were usually coupled together in the Jewish faith, nay, that the
one could reach its proper fulfilment only through the perfor
mance of the other ; and that in believing on a Messiah risen
from the dead, the Apostle was acting in perfect accordance with
the hopes of his nation.
But now, to apply all this to the subject under consideration,
the earthly inheritance : If that inheritance was promised in a
way which, from the very first, implied a resurrection from the
dead, before it could be rightly enjoyed ; and if all along, even
when Canaan was possessed by the seed of Abraham, the men
of faith still looked forward to another inheritance, when the
curse should be utterly abolished, the blessing fully received,
and death finally swallowed up in victory, then a twofold boon
must have been conveyed to Abraham and his seed, under the
promise of the land of Canaan; one to be realized in the natural,
and the other in the resurrection state, a mingled and tempo
rary good before, and a complete and permanent one after, the
restitution of all things by the Messiah. So that, in regard to
the ultimate designs of God, the land of Canaan would serve
much the same purpose as the garden of Eden, with its tree of
life and cherubim of glory the same, and yet more ; for it not
only presented to the eye of faith a type, but also gave in its
possession an earnest, of the inheritance of a paradisiacal world.
The difference, however, is not essential, and only indicates an
advance in God s revelations and purposes of grace, making
what was ultimately designed for the faithful more sure to
them by an instalment, through a singular train of providential
arrangements, in a present inheritance of good. They thus
enjoyed a real and substantial pledge of the better things to
come, which were to be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
But what were these better things themselves I What was
thus indicated to Abraham and his believing posterity, as their
coming inheritance of good? If it was clear that they must
1 Acts xxvi. 6-8.
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 403
have attained to the resurrection from the dead before they
could properly enjoy the possession, it could not be Canaan in
its natural state, as a region of the present earth, that was to be
inherited ; for that, considered as the abode of Abraham and
all his elect posterity, when raised from the tomb and collected
into an innumerable multitude, must have appeared of far too
limited dimensions, as well as of unsuitable character. Though
it might well seem a vast inheritance for any living generation
that should spring from the loins of Abraham, yet it was palpably
inadequate for the possession of his collected seed, when it should
have become like the stars of heaven for multitude. And not
only so ; but as the risen body is to be, not a natural but a glori
fied one, the inheritance it is to occupy must be a glorified one
too. The fairest portions of the earth, in its present fallen and
corruptible state, could be a fit possession for men only so long
as in their persons they are themselves fallen and corruptible.
When redeemed from the power of the grave, and entered on
the glories of the new creation, the natural Canaan will be as
unfit to be their proper home and possession, as the original
Eden would have been with its tree of life. Much more so,
indeed for the earth in its present state is adapted to the sup
port and enjoyment of man, as constituted not only after the
earthly Adam, but after him as underlying the pernicious effects
of the curse. And the ultimate inheritance destined for Abra
ham and the heirs of promise, which was to become theirs after
the resurrection from the dead, must be as much higher and
better than anything which the earth, in its present state, can
furnish, as man s nature, when glorified, shall be higher and
better than it is while in bondage to sin and death.
Nothing less than this certainly is taught in what is said of
the inheritance, as expected by the patriarchs, in the Epistle to
the Hebrews : " These all died in faith, not having received the
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of
them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things de
clare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had
been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they
desire a better country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore God is
404 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
not ashamed to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for
them a city." 1 Without entering into any minute commentary
on this passage, it cannot but be regarded as perfectly conclusive
of two points : First, that Abraham, and the heirs with him of
the same promise, did understand and believe, that the inherit
ance secured to them under the promise of Canaan (for that
w r as the only word spoken to them of an inheritance) was one
in which they had a personal interest. And then, secondly, that
the inheritance, as it was to be occupied and enjoyed by them,
was to be, not a temporary, but a final one, one that might
fitly be designated a " heavenly country," a city built by Divine
hands, and based on immovable foundations, in short, the ulti
mate and proper resting-place of redeemed and glorified natures-.
This was what these holy patriarchs expected and desired,
what they were ivarranted to expect and desire ; for their con
duct in this respect is the subject of commendation, and is justi
fied on the special ground, that otherwise God must have been
ashamed to be called their God. And, finally, it was what
they found contained in the promise to them, of an inheritance
in the land in which they were pilgrims and strangers ; for to
that promise alone could they look for the special ground of the
hopes they cherished of a sure and final possession.
But the question again returns, what is that possession itself
really to be ? That it cannot be the country itself of Palestine,
either in its present condition or as it might become under any
system of culture of which nature is capable, is too obvious to
require any lengthened proof. The twofold fact, that the pos
session was to be man s ultimate and proper inheritance, and
that it could be attained only after the resurrection from the
dead, clearly forbids the supposition of its being the literal land
of Canaan, under any conceivable form of renovated fruitfulness
and beauty. This is also evident from the nature of the pro
mise that formed the ground of Abraham s hope, which made
mention only of the land of Canaan, and which, as pointing to
an ulterior inheritance, must have belonged to that combination
of type with prophecy which we placed first, viz., having the
promise, or prediction, not in the language employed, but in the
typical character of the object which that language described.
1 Heb. xi. 13-16.
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 405
The promise made to Abraham was simple enough in itself. It
gave assurance of a land distinctly marked off by certain geo
graphical boundaries. It was not properly in the words of that
promise that he could read his destiny to any future and ultimate
inheritance; but putting together the two things, that the
promised good could only be realized fully in an after-state of
being, and that all the relations of the time then present were
preparative and temporary representations of better things to
come, he might hence perceive that the earthly Canaan was a type
of what was finally to be enjoyed. Thus the establishment of his
offspring there would be regarded as a prophecy, in fact, of the
exaltation of the whole of an elect seed to their destined state of
blessing and glory. But such being the case, the prediction
standing altogether in the type, the thing predicted and pro
mised must, in conformity with all typical relations, have been
another and far higher thing than that which served to predict
and promise it. Canaan could not be the type of itself: it
could only represent, on the lower platform of nature, what was
hereafter to be developed on the loftier arena of God s ever
lasting kingdom ; and as far as the things of fallen and corrupt
nature differ from, and are inferior to, those of redemption, so
far must the rest of Canaan have differed from, and been
inferior to, "that rest which remaineth for the people of God." 1
What that final rest or inheritance, which forms the antitype
to Canaan, really is, we may gather from the words of the
Apostle concerning it in Eph. i. 14, where he calls the Spirit
"the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the
purchased possession." 2 It is plain, that the subject here dis-
1 See Appendix D.
2 That the received translation gives here the sense of the original with
substantial correctness, I am fully satisfied. The latter part of it, el;
dTTQ^vrpuaiy rv&gt;; TTiotTror/.asa;, has been variously understood, and its natural
import too commonly overlooked, liobinsoii, in his Lexicon, makes it =
a.Ko hvTQuaiy ryy vspiTrowd^ffxi/, the redemption acquired for us, a violent
change, which could only be justified if absolutely necessary. The only two
senses in which the word occurs in the New Testament, are 1. Acquiring,
acquisition, obtaining, 1 Thess. v. 9 ; 2 Thess. ii. 14; Heb. x. 39; 2. The
thing obtained or acquired, possession, in which sense, unquestionably, it is
used in Mai. iii. 17, and in 1 Pet. ii. 9. In both of these places it is applied
to the Church, as God s acquired, purchased possession, and is equal to His
406 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
coursed of, is not our persons, but our goods ; not what believers
in their souls and bodies are to be hereafter, but what is pre
pared for their enjoyment. For the inheritance which belongs
to a person, must always be separate from the person himself.
And as that which is called an inheritance in the one clause, is
undoubtedly the same with that which in the other is named a
possession, purchased or acquired, but not yet redeemed, the re
demption of the possession must be a work to be accomplished
for us, and not to be wrought in us. It must be a change to
the better, effected not upon our persons, but upon the outward
provision secured for their ulterior happiness and well-being.
It is true, that the Church of God, the company of sound
and genuine believers, is sometimes called the inheritance or
peculium, or property in the stricter sense, His select treasure, which is re
lated to Him as nothing else is, which He has acquired or purchased, Trepu-
Koiviaoc., by His own blood, Acts xx. 28, comp. also Ex. xix. 6 ; Deut. vii.
6 ; Tit. ii. 14. The great majority of interpreters, from Calvin to Ellicott,
are of opinion, that because in these passages vrtpiKofqais is used as a desig
nation of the Church, considered as God s peculiar property, it has the same
meaning here, u unto, or until, the redemption of His purchased people,"
as Boothroyd expressly renders. But this view is liable to three objections.
1. The word cr^cro;W/f, is nowhere absolutely and by itself put for u pur
chased people, 1 or " Church ;" when so used, it has the addition of AcoV-
2. The redemption of the Church would then be regarded as future, Avhere-
as it is always represented as past. We read of the redemption of the
bodies of believers as yet to take place, but never of the redemption of the
Church ; that is uniformly spoken of as having been effected by the death
of Christ. 3. It does not suit the connection : for the Apostle is speaking
of the indwelling of the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance to which
believers are destined ; and as an earnest is given as a temporary substitute
for the inheritance or possession, the term to which, or the end in respect to
which it is given, must be, not some other event of a Collateral nature, but
the coming or receiving of the possession itself. Then, while these objec
tions apply to the common view, there is no need for resorting to it : while
it does violence to the word, it only obscures the sense. E&lt;V aYf/fro/tiff/p, both
CEcumenius and Theophylact, on 1 Pet. ii. 9, hold to be elg KTWIV, tig
K^Yipovoftietv, for a possession, for an inheritance. And Didymus on the
same place, as quoted by Steiger, says, "that is irsptirofaais-, which, by way
of distinction, is reckoned among our substance and possessions." There
fore the correct meaning here is that given by Calov : " HepiTrowtrts, the
abstract being placed for the concrete, is to be understood of the acquired
inheritance, for the Holy Spirit is the pledge and earnest until the full
redemption of the acquired inheritance."
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 407
purchased possession of God. In Old Testament Scripture His
people are styled His "heritage," " His treasure;" and in New
Testament Scripture we find St Peter addressing them as " a
peculiar people," or literally, a people for a possession namely,
a possession of God, acquired or purchased by the precious
blood of His dear Son. The question here, however, is not of
what may be called God s inheritance, but of ours ; not of our
redemption from the bondage of evil as a possession of God,
which He seeks to enjoy free from all evil, but of that which we
are ourselves to possess and occupy as our final portion. And
as we could with no propriety be called our own inheritance, or
our own possession, it must be something apart from, and out of
ourselves, which is here to be understood, not a state of being
to be held, but a portion of blessing and glory to be enjoyed.
Now, whatever the inheritance or possession may be in itself,
and whatever the region where it is to be enjoyed, when it is
spoken of as needing to be redeemed, we are evidently taught
to regard it as something that has been alienated from us, but
is again to be made ours ; not a possession altogether new, but
an old possession, lost, and again to be reclaimed from the
powers of evil, which now overmaster and destroy it. So was
it certainly with our persons. They were sold under sin. With
our loss of righteousness before God, we lost at the same time
our spiritual freedom, and all that essentially belonged to the
pure and blessed life, in the possession of which we were
created. Instead of this, we became subject to the tyrannous
dominion of the prince of darkness, holding us captive in our
souls to the foul and wretched bondage of sin, and in our bodies
to the mortality and corruption of death. The redemption of
our persons is just their recovery from this lost and ruinous
state, to the freedom of God s children, and the blessedness of
immortal life in His presence and glory. It proceeds at every
step by acts of judgment upon the great adversary and oppres
sor, who took advantage of the evil, and ever seeks to drive it
to the uttermost. And when the work shall be completed by
the redemption of the body from the power of the grave, there
shall then be the breaking up of the last bond of oppression
that lay upon our natures, the putting down of the last enemy,
that the son of wickedness may no longer vex or injure us.
408 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
In this redemption-process, which is already begun upon the
people of God, and shall be consummated in the glories of the
resurrection, it is the same persons, the same soul and body,
which have experience both of the evil and of the good.
Though the change is so great and wonderful, that it is some
times called a new creation, it is not in the sense of anything
being brought into existence, which previously had no being.
Such language is simply used on account of the happy and
glorious transformation that is made to pass upon the natures
which already exist, but exist only in a state of misery and
oppression. And when the same language is applied to the
inheritance, which is used of the persons of those who are to
enjoy it, what can this indicate, but that the same things are
true concerning it ? The bringing in of that inheritance, in its
finished state of fulness and glory, is in like manner called "the
making of all things new;" but it is so called only in respect
to the wonderful transformation which is to be wrought upon
the old things, which are thereby to receive another constitu
tion, and present another aspect, than they were wont to do
before. For that the possession is to be redeemed, bespeaks it
as a thing to be recovered, not to be made, a thing already
in being, though so changed from its original destination, so
marred and spoiled, overlaid with so many forms of evil, and so
far from serving the ends for which it is required, that it may
be said to be alienated from us, in the hands of the enemy, for
the prosecution of his purposes of evil.
Now, what is it, of which this can be affirmed ? If it is said
heaven, and by that is meant what is commonly understood,
some region far removed from this lower world, in the sightless
realms of ether, then we ask, was heaven in that sense ever
man s 1 Has it become obnoxious to any evils, from which it
must be delivered ? or has it fallen into the hands of an enemy
and an oppressor, from whose evil sway it must again be re
deemed? None of these things surely can be said of such a
heaven. It would be an altogether new inheritance, a posses
sion never held, consequently never lost, and incapable of being
redeemed. And there is nothing that answers such a descrip
tion, or can possibly realize the conditions of such an inherit
ance, but what lies within the bounds and compass of this earth
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 409
itself, with which the history of man has hitherto been con
nected both in good and evil, and where all the possession is,
that he can properly be said either to have held or to have lost.
Let us again recur to the past. Man s original inheritance
was a lordship or dominion, stretching over the whole earth,
but extending no farther. It entitled him to the ministry of all
creatures within its borders, and the enjoyment of all fruits and
productions upon its surface one only excepted, for the trial
of his obedience. (Gen. i. 28-31 ; Ps. viii.) When he fell,
he fell from his dominion, as well as from his purity ; the in
heritance departed from him ; he was driven from paradise, the
throne and palace of his kingdom ; labour, servitude, and suffer
ing, became his portion in the world ; he was doomed to be a
bondsman, a hewer of wood and drawer of water, on what was
formed to be his inheritance; and all that he has since been
able, by hard toil and industry, to acquire, is but a partial and
temporary command over some fragments of what was at first
all his own. Nor is that the whole. For with man s loss of
the inheritance, Satan was permitted to enter, and extend his
usurped sw r ay over the domain from which man has been ex
pelled as its proper lord. And this he does by filling the world
with agencies and works of evil, spreading disorder through
the elements of nature, and disaffection among the several
orders of being, above all, corrupting the minds of men, so
as to lead them to cast off the authority of God, and to use
the things he confers on them for their own selfish ends and
purposes, for the injury and oppression of their fellow-men, for
the encouragement of sin and suppression of the truth of God,
for rendering the world, in short, as far as possible, a region of
darkness and not of light, a kingdom of Satan and not of God,
a theatre of malice, corruption, and disorder, not of love,
harmony, and blessedness.
Now, as the redemption of man s person consists in his being
rescued from the dominion of Satan from the power of sin in
his soul, and from the reign of death in his body, which are the
two forms of Satan s dominion over man s nature ; what can
the redemption of the inheritance be, but the rescuing of this
earth from the manifold ills which, through the instrumentality
of Satan, have come to lodge in its bosom, purging its elements
410 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
of all mischief and disorder, changing it from being the vale
of tears and the charnel-house of death, into a paradise of life
and blessing, restoring to man, himself then redeemed and
fitted for the honour, the sceptre of a real dominion over all its
fulness, in a word, rendering it in character and design what
it was on creation s morn, when the sons of God shouted for
joy, and God Himself looked with satisfaction on the goodness
and order and beauty which pervaded this portion of His uni
verse ? To do such a work as this upon the earth, would mani
festly be to redeem the possession which man by disobedience
forfeited and lost, and a new title to which has been purchased
by Christ for all His spiritual seed ; for were that done, the
enemy would be completely foiled and cast out, and man s
proper inheritance restored.
But some are perhaps ready to ask, Is that, then, all the in
heritance that the redeemed have to look for ? Is their abode
still to be upon earth, and their portion of good to be confined
to what may be derived from its material joys and occupations ?
Is paradise restored to be simply the re-establishment and en
largement of paradise lost ? We might reply to such questions
by putting similar ones regarding the persons of the redeemed.
Are these still, after all, to be the same persons they were
during the days of their sojourn on earth ? Is the soul, when
expatiating amid the glorious scenes of eternity, to live in the
exercise of the same powers and faculties which it employed on
the things of time? And is the outward frame, in which it is
to lodge, and act, and enjoy itself, to be that very tabernacle
which it bore here in weakness, and which it left behind to rot
and perish in the tomb ? Would any one feel at a moment s
loss to answer such questions in the affirmative? Does it in
any respect shock our feelings, or lower the expectations we feel
warranted to cherish concerning our future state, when we
think that the very soul and body which together constitute
and make up the being we now are, shall also constitute and
make up the being we are to be hereafter ? Assuredly not ;
for however little we know what we are to be hereafter, we are
not left in ignorance that both soul and body shall be freed
from all evil ; and not only so, but in the process shall be un
speakably refined and elevated. We know it is the purpose of
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 411
God to magnify in us tlic riches of His grace by raising our
natures higher than the fall has brought them low to glorify,
while He redeems them, and so to render them capable of
spheres of action and enjoyment beyond not only what eye has
seen or ear has heard, but even what has entered into the mind
of man to conceive.
And why may we not think and reason thus also, concern
ing the inheritance which these redeemed natures are to oc
cupy ? Why may not God do a like work of purification and
refinement on this solid earth, so as to transform and adapt it
into a fit residence for man in glory? Why may not, why
should not, that which has become for man, as fallen, the house
of bondage and the field of ruin, become also for man redeemed
the habitation of peace and the region of pre-eminent delight ?
Surely He, who from the very stones can raise up children unto
Abraham, and who will bring forth from the noisome corruption
of the tomb, forms clothed with honour and majesty, can equally
change the vile and disordered condition of the world, as it now
is, and make it fit to be " the house of the glory of His king
dom," a world where the eye of redeemed manhood shall be
regaled with sights of surpassing loveliness, and his ear ravished
with sounds of sweetest melody, and his desires satisfied with
purest delight, ay, a world, it may be, which, as it alone of all
creation s orbs has been honoured to bear the footsteps of an
incarnate God, and witness the performance of His noblest
work, so shall it be chosen as the region around which He will
pour the richest manifestations of His glorious presence, and
possibly send from it, by the ministry of His redeemed, com
munications of love and kindness to the farthest bounds of His
habitable universe !
No ; when rightly considered, it is not a low and degrading
view of the inheritance which is reserved for the heirs of salva
tion, to place it in the possession of this very earth which we
now inhabit, after it shall have been redeemed and glorified. I
feel it for myself to be rather an ennobling and comforting
thought ; and were I left to choose, out of all creation s bounds,
the place where my redeemed nature is to find its local habita
tion, enjoy its Redeemer s presence, and reap the fruits of His
costly purchase, I would prefer none to this. For if destined
412 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCKIPTURE.
to so high a purpose, I know it will be made in all respects
what it should be, the paradise of delight, the very heaven of
glory and blessing, which I desire and need. And then, the
connection between what it now is, and what it shall have
become, must impart to it an interest which can belong to no
other region in the universe. If anything could enhance our
exaltation to the lordship of a glorious and blessed inheritance,
it would surely be the feeling of possessing it in the very place
where we were once miserable bondsmen of sin and corruption.
And if anything should dispose us to bear meekly our present
heritage of evil, to quicken our aspirations after the period of
deliverance, and to raise our affections above the vain and
perishable things around us, it should be the thought that all
we can now either have or experience from the world is part of
a possession forfeited and accursed, but that it only waits for
the transforming power of God to be changed into the inherit
ance of the saints in light, when heaven and earth shall be
mingled into one.
But if this renovated earth is to be itself the inheritance of
the redeemed, if it, in the first instance at least, is to be the
heaven where they are to reap life everlasting, how, it may be
asked, can heaven be spoken of as above us, and represented as
the higher region of God s presence ? Such language is never,
that we are aware of, used in Scripture to denote the final
dwelling-place of God s people ; and if it were used there, as it
often is in popular discourse, it would need, of course, to be
understood with that limitation which requires to be put upon
all our more definite descriptions of a future world. To regard
expressions of the kind referred to, as determining our final
abode to be over our heads, were to betray a childish ignorance
of the fact, that what is such by day, is the reverse of what is so
by night. Such language properly denotes the superior nature
of the heavenly inheritance, and not its relative position. God
can make any region of His universe a heaven, since heaven is
there, where He manifests His presence and glory ; and why
might He not do so here, as well as in any other part of creation?
But is it not said, that the kingdom in which the redeemed are
to live and reign for ever, was prepared for them before the
foundation of the world ; and how, then, can the scene of it be
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 41o
placed on this earth, still waiting to be redeemed for the pur
pose ? The preparation there meant, however, cannot possibly
be an actual fitting up of the place which believers are to occupy
with their Lord ; for wherever it is, the Apostle tells us it still
needs to be redeemed : in that sense it is not yet ready ; and
Christ Himself said, when on the eve of leaving the world,
that lie was going to prepare it, as He does by directing, on His
throne of glory, the events which are to issue in its full estab
lishment. Still, from the first it might be said to be prepared,
because destined for Christ and His elect people in the mind of
God, even as they were all chosen in Him before the founda
tion of the world ; and every successive act in the history of the
mediatorial kingdom is another step toward the accomplishment
of the purpose. Are we not again told, however, that the earth
is to be destroyed, its elements made to melt with fervent heat,
and all its works consumed 1 ? Unquestionably this is said,
though not by any means necessarily implying that the earth is
really to be annihilated. We know that God is perpetually
causing changes to pass over the works of His hands ; but that
He actually annihilates any, we have no ground, either in
nature or in Scripture, to suppose. If in the latter, we are told
of man s body, that it perishes, and is consumed by the moth ;
yet of what are we more distinctly assured, than that it is not
doomed to absolute destruction, but shall live again ? When we
read of the old world being destroyed by the flood, we know that
the material fabric of the earth continued as before. Indeed,
much the same language that is applied to the earth in this re
spect, is also extended to the heavens themselves ; for they too
are represented as ready to pass away, and to be changed as a
vesture, and the promise speaks of new heavens as well as a new
earth. And in regard to this earth in particular, there is
nothing in the language used concerning it to prevent us from
believing, that the fire which, in the day of God s judgment, is
to burst forth with consuming violence, may, like the waters of
the deluge, and in a far higher respect than they, act as an ele
ment of purification dissolving, indeed, the present constitution
of things, and leaving not a wreck behind of all we now see and
handle, but at the same time rectifying and improving the
powers of nature, refining and elevating the whole framework
414 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCKIPTURE.
of the earth, and impressing on all that belongs to it a transcen
dent, imperishable glory ; so that in condition and appearance
it shall be substantially a new world, and one as far above what
it now is, as heaven is above the earth.
There is nothing, then, in the other representations of
Scripture, which appears, when fairly considered, to raise any
valid objection against the renovated earth being the ultimate
inheritance of the heirs of promise. And there is much to shut
us up to the conclusion that it is so. We have enlarged on one
testimony of inspiration, not because it is the only or the chief
one on the subject, but because it is so explicit, that it seems
decisive of the question. For an inheritance which has been
already acquired or purchased, but which must be redeemed
before it can really be our possession, can be understood of
nothing but that original domain which sin brought, together
with man, into the bondage of evil at the fall. And of what
else can we understand the representation in the 8th Psalm, as
interpreted by the pen of inspiration itself, in the Epistle to
the Hebrews, ii. 5-9, and in 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28 ? These pas
sages in the New Testament put it beyond a doubt, that the idea
of perfect and universal dominion delineated in the Psalm,
is to be realized in the world to come, over which Christ, as the
head of redeemed humanity, is to rule, in company with His
redeemed people. The representation itself in the Psalm, is
evidently borrowed from the first chapter of Genesis, and, con
sidered as a prophecy of good things to come, or a prediction of
the dignity and honour already obtained for man in Christ, and
hereafter to be revealed, it may be regarded as simply present
ing to our view the picture of a restored and renovated creation.
" It is just that passage in Genesis which describes the original
condition of the earth," to use the words of Hengstenberg,
" turned into a prayer for us," and we may add, into an object
of hope and expectation. When that prayer is fulfilled, in
other words, when the natural and moral evils entailed by the
fall have been abolished, and the earth shall stand to man, when
redeemed and glorified, in a similar relation to what it did at the
birth of creation, then shall the hope we now possess of an in
heritance of glory be turned into enjoyment. In Isa. xi. 6-9,
the final results of Messiah s reign are in like manner delineated
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 415
under the aspect of a world which has obtained riddance of all
the disorders introduced by sin, and is restored to the blessed
harmony and peace which characterized it when God pro
nounced it very good. And still more definitely, though with
reference to the same aspect of things, the Apostle Peter (Acts
iii. 21) represents the time of Christ s second coming as " the
time of the restitution of all things," that is, when everything
should be restored to its pristine condition, the same condition
in kind, all pure and good, glorious and blessed, but higher in
degree, as it is the design and tendency of redemption to ennoble
whatsoever it touches. 1
It is precisely on the same object, a redeemed and glorified
earth, that the Apostle Paul, in the 8th chapter of the Romans,
fixes the mind of believers as the terminating point of their
hopes of glory. An incomparable glory is to be revealed in
them ; and in connection with that, " the deliverance of a suffer
ing creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the sons of God." What can this deliverance be, but
what is marked in the Epistle to the Ephesians, as " the re
demption of the purchased possession ? " Nor is it possible to
connect with anything else the words of Peter in his second
Epistle, where, after speaking of the dreadful conflagration
which is to consume all that belongs to the earth in its present
form, he adds, as if expressly to guard against supposing that
he meant the actual and entire destruction of this world as the
abode of man, " Nevertheless we, according to His promise,
look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right
eousness."
It is only by understanding the words of Christ Himself,
"The meek shall inherit the earth," of the earth in that new
condition, its state of blessedness and glory, that any full or
adequate sense can be attached to them. He could not surely
mean the earth as it then was, or as it is to be during any
period of its existence, while sin and death reign in it. So long
1 That this is simply the force of the original here, it may be enough to
give the meaning of the main word from the lexicographer Hesychius: oivo-
KKTiiaToiois, " is the restoration of a thing to its former state, or to a better;
restitution, consummation, a revolution of the grander kind, from which a
new order of things arises, rest after turmoil."
41 6 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
as it is in that condition, not only will the saints of God have
many things to suffer in it, as our Lord immediately foretold,
when He spake of the persecutions for righteousness sake
which His people should have to endure, and on account of
which He bade them look for their "reward in heaven;" but
all the treasure it contains must be of the moth-eaten, perishable
kind, which they are expressly forbidden to covet, and the earth
itself must be that city without continuance, in contrast to
which they are called to seek one to come. To speak, therefore,
as many commentators do, of the tendency of piety in general,
and of a mild and gracious disposition in particular, to secure
for men a prosperous and happy life on earth, is to say com
paratively little as regards the fulfilment of the promise, that
they shall " inherit the earth." If it could even command for
them the whole that earth now can give, would Christ on that
account have called them blessed ? Would he not rather have
warned them to beware of the deceitfulness of riches, and the
abundance of honours thus likely to flow into their bosom?
To be blessed in the earth as an inheritance, must import that
the earth has become to them a real and proper good, such as
it shall be when it has been transformed into a fit abode for
redeemed natures. This view is also confirmed, and apparently
rendered as clear and certain as language can make it, by the
representations constantly given by Christ and the inspired
writers, of His return to the earth and manifestation on it in
glory, as connected with the last scenes and final issues of His
kingdom. When He left the world, it was as a man going into
a far country, from which He was to come again; 1 the heaven
received Him at His resurrection, but only until the times of
the restitution of all things ; 2 the period of His residence within
the veil, is coincident with that during which His people have
to maintain a hidden life, and is to be followed by another, in
which they and He together are to be manifested in glory. 3
And in the book of Revelation, while unquestionably the scenes
are described in figurative language, yet when exact localities
are mentioned as the places where the scenes are to be realized,
and that in connection with a plain description of the condition
1 Matt. xxv. 14 ; Luke xix. 12 ; John xiv. 3. 2 Acts iii. 21.
3 Col. iii. 4 ; Heb. ix. 28 ; 1 John iii. 2 ; Rev. i. 7.
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 417
of those who are to have part in them, we are compelled by all
the ordinary rules of composition to regard such localities as
real and proper habitations. What, then, can we make of the
ascription of praise from the elders, representatives of a re
deemed church, when they give glory to the Messiah, as " hav
ing made them kings and priests unto God, and they shall
reign with Him upon the earth?" Or what of the closing
scenes, where the Evangelist sees a new heaven and a new
earth in the room of those which had passed away, and the
new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to settle on the
renovated earth, and the tabernacle of God fixed amongst
men? 1 Granting that the delineations of the book are a
succession of pictures, drawn from the relations of things in
the former ages of the world, and especially under the Old
Testament economy, and that the fulfilment to be looked for is
not as of a literal description, but as of a symbolical representa
tion, yet there must be certain fixed landmarks as to time and
place, persons and objects, which, in their natures or their
names, are so clearly defined, that by them the relation of one
part to another must be arranged and interpreted. For ex
ample, in the above quotations, we cannot doubt who are kings
and priests, or with whom they are to reign ; and it were surely
strange, if there could be any doubt of the theatre of their
dominion, when it is so expressly denominated the earth. And
still more strange, if, when heaven and earth are mentioned
relatively to each other, and the scene of the Church s future
glory fixed upon the latter as contradistinguished from the
former, earth should yet stand for heaven, and not for itself.
Indeed, the most striking feature in the representations of the
Apocalypse is the uniformity with which they connect the
higher grade of blessing with earth, and the lower with the
world of spirits. As Hengstenberg has justly remarked on ch.
xx. 4, 5, it invariably points to a double stage of blessedness,
the one awaiting believers immediately after their departure out
of this life, the other what they are to receive when they enter
the New Jerusalem, and reign with Christ in glory. But we
find the same in our Lord s teaching, as when He said to the
thief on the cross, " To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,"
1 Rev. v. 9, 10 ; xxi. 1-5.
VOL. I. 2 D
418 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
and yet pointed His disciples to the state of things on earth
after the resurrection for their highest reward. (Matt. xix.
28.) And, on the whole, we are forced to conclude with
Usteri, that " the conception of a transference of the perfected
kingdom of God into the heavens is, properly speaking, modern,
seeing that, according to Paul and the Apocalypse (and, he
might also have added, Peter and Christ Himself), the seat of
the kingdom of God is the earth, inasmuch as that likewise
partakes in the general renovation." 1
Having now closed our investigation, we draw the following
conclusions from it.
1. The earthly Canaan was neither designed by God, nor
from the first was it understood by His people to be the ultimate
and proper inheritance which they were to occupy ; things
having been spoken and "hoped for concerning it which plainly
could not be realized within the bounds of Canaan.
1 The above passage is quoted by Tholuck, on Rom. viii. 19, who him
self there, and on Heb. ii., concurs in the same view. He also states,
what cannot be denied, that it is the view which has been adopted by the
greatest number and the most ancient of the expositors, amongst whom
he mentions, though he does not cite, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome,
Augustine, Ambrose, Luther, etc. And Rivet, on Gen. viii. 22, states
that the opinion which maintains only a change, and not an utter de
struction of the world, has most supporters, both among the elder and the
more recent writers, so that it may be called, says he, "the common one,
and be said to prevail by the number of its adherents." In the present
day, the opposite opinion would probably be entitled to be regarded as by
much the most common ; and the view here set forth will perhaps by some
be eyed with jealousy, if not condemned as novel. It may be proper,
therefore, to give a few quotations from the more eminent commentators.
Jerome, on Isa. Ixv. 17, quotes Ps. cii. 26 and 27, which he thinks "clearly
demonstrates, that the perdition spoken of is not a reducing to nothing,
but a change to the better ;" and having referred to what Peter says of the
new heavens and the new earth, he remarks that the Apostle " does not
say, we look for other heavens and another earth, but for the old and
original ones transformed into a better state." Of the fathers generally,
as of Justin Martyr in particular, Semisch states that they regarded the
future destruction of the world by fire " far more frequently as a trans
formation than as an annihilation." (Life and Times of Justin, Bib. Cab.,
vol. xlii., p. 366.) Calvin, while he discourages minute inquiries and
vain speculations regarding the future state, expresses himself with con
fidence, on Rom. viii. 21, as to this world being the destined theatre of
glory, and considers it as a proof of the incomparable glory to which the
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 419
2. The inheritance was one which could be enjoyed only by
those who had become the children of the resurrection, them
selves fully redeemed in soul and body from all the effects and
consequences of sin, made more glorious and blessed, indeed,
than if they had never sinned, because constituted after the
image of the heavenly Adam. And as the inheritance must
correspond with the inheritor, it can only be man s original
possession restored, the earth redeemed from the curse which
sin brought on it, and, like man himself, rendered exceedingly
more beautiful and glorious than in its primeval state, the fit
abode of a Church made like, in all its members, to the Son of
God.
3. The occupation of the earthly Canaan by the natural seed
of Abraham was a type, and no more than a type, of this occu-
sons of God are to be raised, that the lower creation is to be renewed for the
purpose of manifesting and ennobling it, just as the disorders and troubles
of creation have testified to the appalling evil of our sin. So also Haldane,
as little inclined to the fanciful as Calvin, on the same passage, after
quoting from 2 Pet. and Rev., continues : " The destruction of the sub
stance of things differs from a change in their qualities. When metal of a
certain shape is subjected to fire, it is destroyed as to its figure, but not as
to its substance. Thus the heavens and the earth will pass through the
fire, but only that they may be purified and come forth anew, more
excellent than before. This hope the hope of deliverance was held out
in the sentence pronounced on man, for in the doom of our first parents
the Divine purpose of providing a deliverer was revealed. We know not
the circumstances of this change, how it will be effected, or in what form
the creation those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness, suited for the abode of the sons of God shall then exist ;
but we are sure it shall be worthy of the Divine wisdom, although at
present beyond our comprehension." To the same effect Fuller, in his
Gospel its own Witness, ch. v. Thiersch says of the promise to Abraham,
u Undoubtedly it pointed to a kingdom of God upon earth, not in an
invisible world of spirits. Paradise itself had been upon earth, much more
should the earth be the centre of the world to come." (History, i., p. 20.)
See Olshausen also on Matt. viii. Mr Stuart, in his work on Romans,
expresses his strong dissent from such views, on the ground of their being
opposed to the declarations of Christ, and requiring such a literal inter
pretation of prophecy as would lead to absurd and ridiculous expectations
in regard to other predictions. We can perceive no contrariety, however,
to any declaration of Christ or His apostles ; and the other predictions he
refers to belong to quite another class, ami do not require, or even admit,
as might quite easily be shown, of a strictly literal fulfilment.
420 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
pation by a redeemed Church of her destined inheritance of
glory ; and consequently everything concerning the entrance
of the former on their temporary possession, was ordered so as
to represent and foreshadow the things which belong to the
Church s establishment in her permanent possession. Hence,
between the giving of the promise, which, though it did not
terminate in the land of Canaan, yet included that, and through
it prospectively exhibited the better inheritance, a series of im
portant events intervened, which are capable of being fully and
properly explained in no other way than by means of their
typical bearing on the things hereafter to be disclosed respecting
that better inheritance. If we ask, why did the heirs of promise
wander about so long as pilgrims, and withdraw to a foreign
region before they were allowed to possess the land, and not
rather, like a modern colony, quietly spread, without strife or
bloodshed, over its surface, till the whole was possessed ? Or
why were they suffered to fall under the dominion of a foreign
power, from whose cruel oppression they needed to be redeemed,
with terrible executions of judgment on the oppressor, before
the possession could be theirs ? Or why, before that event
also, should they have been put under the discipline of law,
having the covenant of Sinai, with its strict requirements and
manifold obligations of service, superadded to the covenant of
grace and promise ? Or why, again, should their right to the
inheritance itself have to be vindicated from a race of occupants
who had been allowed for a time to keep possession of it, and
whose multiplied abominations had so polluted it, that nothing
short of their extermination could render it a fitting abode for the
heirs of promise ? The full and satisfactory answer to all such
questions can only be given by viewing the whole in connection
with the better things of a higher dispensation, as the first part
of a plan which was to have its counterpart and issue in the
glories of a redeemed creation, and for the final results of which
the Church needed to be prepared by standing in similar re
lations, and passing through like experiences, in regard to an
earthly inheritance. No doubt, with one and all of these there
were connected reasons and results for the time then present,
amply sufficient to justify every step in the process, when con
sidered simply by itself. But it is only when we take the whole
THE DESTINED INHERITANCE. 421
as a glass, in which to see mirrored the far greater things
which from the first were in prospect, that we can get a compre
hensive view of the mind of God in appointing them, and know
the purposes which He chiefly contemplated.
For example, the fact of Abraham and his immediate de
scendants being appointed to wander as pilgrims through the
land of Canaan, without being allowed to occupy any part of it
as their own possession, may be partly explained, though in that
view it must appear somewhat capricious, by its being con
sidered as a trial to their own faith, and an act of forbearance
and mercy toward the original possessors, whose iniquities were
not yet full. But if we thus find grounds of reason to explain
why it may have been so ordered, when we come to look upon
the things which happened to them, as designed to image other
things which were afterwards to belong to the relation of God s
people to a higher and better inheritance, we see it was even
necessary that those transactions should have been so ordered,
and that it would have been unsuitable for the heirs of promise,
either entering at once on the possession, or living as pilgrims
and expectants, anywhere but within its borders. For thus
alone could their experience fitly represent the case of God s
people in Gospel times, who have not only to wait long for the
redemption of the purchased possession, but while they wait,
must walk up and down as pilgrims in the very region which
they are hereafter to use as their own, when it shall have been
delivered from the powers of evil who now hold it in bondage,
and purged from their abominations. Hence, if they know
aright their relation to the world as it now is, and their calling
as the heirs of promise, they must sit loose to the things of
earth, even as the patriarchs did to the land of their sojourn,
must feel that it cannot be the place of their rest so long as it
is polluted, and that they must stedfastly look for the world to
come as their proper home and possession. And thus also the
whole series of transactions which took place between the con
firmation of the covenant of promise with Jacob, and the actual
possession of the land promised, and especially of course the
things which concerned that greatest of all the transactions, the
revelation of the law from Sinai, is to be regarded as a delinea
tion in the type, of the way and manner in which the heirs of
422 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
God are to obtain the inheritance of the purchased possession.
Meanwhile, apart from these later transactions, there are two
important lessons which the Church may clearly gather from
what appears in the first heirs of promise, and which she ought
never to lose sight of : First, that the inheritance, come when
and how it may, is the free gift of God, bestowed by Him, as
sovereign lord and proprietor, on those whom He calls to the
fellowship of His grace : And, second, that the hope of the in
heritance must exist as an animating principle in their hearts,
influencing all their procedure. Their spirit and character must
be such as become those who are the expectants as well as heirs
of that better country, which is an heavenly ; nor can Christ
ever be truly formed in the heart, until He be formed as " the
hope of glory."
APPENDIX A.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW. P. 138.
I. THE HISTORICAL AND DIDACTIC PORTIONS.
BESIDES numberless allusions of various kinds in the New Testament to the
Old, there are somewhat more than two hundred and fifty express citations
in the writings of the one from those of the other. These citations are of
unequal length ; they consist often of a single clause, but sometimes also
extend to several verses. They are taken indiscriminately from the different
parts of Old Testament Scripture ; though, with very few exceptions, they
belong to the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the writings of the
prophets.
Not a few of these citations from the Old Testament are citations of the
simplest kind ; they appear merely as passages quoted in their plain sense
from the previously existing canon of Scripture. Such, for example, are
the passages out of the books of Moses, with which our Lord, after the simple
notification, " It is written," thrice met the assaults of the tempter in the
wilderness ; and such also are those with which Stephen, in his historical
speech before the Jewish council, sought, through appropriate references to
the past, to enlighten the minds and alarm the consciences of his judges. In
examples of this description, there is nothing that can be said to wear even
the semblance of a difficulty, unless it may be regarded as such, that occa
sionally a slight difference appears in the passages as quoted, from what
they are as they stand in the original Scripture. But the difference is
never more than a verbal one ; the sense of the original is always given with
substantial correctness by the inspired writers in the New Testament ; and
so far as the great principles of interpretation are concerned, there is no
need for dwelling on a matter so comparatively minute.
But there still remains a considerable variety of Old Testament passages,
so cited in the New as plainly to involve certain principles of interpretation ;
because they are cited as grounds of inference for some authoritative con
clusion, or as proofs of doctrine respecting something connected with the
person, the work, or the kingdom of Christ. And on the supposition of the
authors of the New Testament being inspired teachers, the character of
these citations is of the gravest importance first, as providing, in the her-
meneutical principles they involve, a test to some extent of the inspiration
of the writers; and then as furnishing in those principles an infallible
424 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
direction for the general interpretation of ancient Scripture. For there
can be no doubt that the manner in which our Lord and His apostles under
stood and applied the Scriptures of the Old Testament, was as much in
tended to throw light generally on the principles of interpretation, as to
administer instruction on the specific points, for the sake of which they
were more immediately appealed to. What, then, is the kind of use made
of the passages in question, and the spirit in which they are explained ? Is
it natural and proper? Is there nothing strained, nothing paradoxical,
nothing arbitrary and capricious, in the matter ? Does it altogether com
mend itself to our understandings and consciences ? Undoubtedly it does
so in the great majority of cases. And yet it is not to be denied that there
are certain peculiarities connected with the treatment of the Old Testament
in the New, which are very apt to stagger inquirers in their first attention
to the subject. Nay, there are real difficulties attaching to some parts of it,
which have long exercised the ingenuity of the ablest interpreters, and of
which no satisfactory solution can be given, without a clear and compre
hensive insight being first obtained into the connection subsisting between
the preparatory and the ultimate things in God s kingdom.
In a small publication, which materially contributed to the solution
of some of these difficulties, issued so far back as 1824, Olshausen remarks
concerning the use made of the Old Testament in the New :
" This has been for all more recent expositors a stone of stumbling, over
which not a few of them have actually fallen. It has appeared to them
difficult, and even impossible, to discover a proper unity and connection in
the constructions put upon the passages by the New Testament writers, or
to refer them to rules and principles. Without being able to refer them to
these, they could not properly justify and approve of them ; neither could
they, on the other hand, altogether disapprove and reject them, without
abandoning everything. So that, in explaining the passages of the Old
Testament which pointed to the New, and again explaining the passages of
the New Testament which expressly referred to and applied the Old, exposi
tors for the most part found themselves involved in the greatest difficulties,
and, on the one side or the other, resorted to the most violent expedients.
But the explanation of the Old Testament in the New is the very point from
which alone all exposition that listens to the voice of Divine wisdom must
set out. For we have here presented to us the sense of Holy Scripture as
understood by inspired men themselves, and are furnished with the true key
of knowledge." 1
It is more especially, however, in the application made by New Testament
writers of the prophecies of the Old Testament, that the difficulties in ques
tion present themselves. Nor are they by any means of one kind : they
are marked by a considerable diversity ; and the passages will require to be
taken in due order and connection, if we are to arrive at a well-grounded
and satisfactory view of the subject. This is what we mean to do. But
as there are other portions of Old Testament Scripture, besides the pro-
1 Ein Wort uber tiefern Scliriftsinn, pp. 7, 8.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW. 425
phccies, referred to and quoted in the New, as much use also is m;ide
there of the historical and didactic portions, it is important, in the first
instance, to notice that this use, with only one or two apparent, and no real
exceptions, is always of a quite natural and unsophisticated character ; free
from any ridiculous or extravagant conceits, and entirely approving itself
to the judgments of profound and thoughtful readers. Such readers, in
deed, so naturally expect it to be so, that they scarcely take cognizance of
the fact, or ever think of the possibility of its having been otherwise. But
it is the rather to be noted, as, at the period the New Testament was
written, there was, both in the age generally, and in the Jewish section of
it in particular, a strong tendency to the allegorical in interpretation to
the strained, the fanciful, the puerile. The records of Gospel history con
tain many plain indications of this. Our Lord even charged the Jewish
scholars and interpreters of His day with rendering of no effect the law of
God by their traditions (Mark vii. 11-13) ; and evidently had it as His
chief aim, in a considerable part of His public teaching, to vindicate the
real sense of ancient Scripture from their false glosses and sophistical per
versions. The oldest Rabbinical writings extant, which profess to deliver
the traditional interpretations of the leading doctors of the synagogue, suffi
ciently evince what need there was for our Lord adopting such a course.
Such as know these only from the quotations adduced by Ainsworth, Light-
foot, and similar writers, see them only in what is at once by far their best
side and their smallest proportions. For, to a large extent, they consist of
absurd, incredible, and impure stories ; abound with the most arbitrary and
ridiculous conceits ; and, as a whole, tend much more to obscure and per
plex the meaning of Old Testament Scripture than explain it. It was
even regarded as a piece of laudable ingenuity to multiply as much as pos
sible the meanings of every clause and text ; for, as Jeremiah had compared
the word of God to a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, so, it was
thought, the word must admit of as many senses as the rock smitten with
the hammer might produce splinters. Some Rabbinical authorities, there
fore, contend for forty-nine, and others for as many as seventy, meanings to
each verse. 1
When we pass out of the strictly Jewish territory to the other theological
writings of the first ages, we are seldom allowed to travel far without
stumbling on something of the same description. To say nothing of the
writings of Philo, which are replete with fanciful allegorical meanings, but
1 Eisenmenger, Entwectes Judenthum, vol. i., cb. 9. This laborious investigator
of Jewish writings justly calls their expositions " foolish and perverted," and supports
the assertion with ample proof. Thus to refer only to one or two on the passage
which narrates the meeting of Esau and Jacob, it is gathered in the Bereschith Eabba,
from a small peculiarity in one of the words, that Esau did not come to kiss, but to
bite, and that " our father Jacob s neck was changed into marble, so that the teeth of
the ungodly man were broken." The passage in Ps. xcii. 10 " My horn shalt Thou
exalt like the horn of an unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil " is explained in
the Jalkut Chudash by the statement, that while in " anointing the other sons of
Jesse the oil was poured out, when David s turn came, the oil of itself flowed and
426 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
which could have little if any influence in Judea, in the epistle of Barnabas
(a production probably of the second century) we find among other frivo
lous things, the circumcision of 318 persons in Abraham s house interpreted
as indicating that the patriarch had received the mystery of three letters.
For the numerical value of the two leading letters that stand for the name
of Jesus is 18, and the letter T, the figure of the cross, is 300 ; " wherefore
by two letters he signified Jesus, and by the third His cross. He who has
put the engrafted gift of His doctrine within us, knows that I never taught
to any one a more certain truth." In the epistle of Clement, a still earlier
production, the scarlet thread which Rahab suspended from her window, is
made to signify that there should be redemption through the blood of Jesus
to all that believe and hope on Him ; and the fable of the Phoenix, dying
after five hundred years, and giving birth, when dead, to another destined
to live for the same period, is gravely treated as a fact in natural science,
and held up as a proof of the resurrection. Some things of a similar nature
are also to be met with in Irenseus, and many in the writings of Justin
Martyr. Let the following suffice for a specimen :
"When the people fought with Amalek, and the son of Nun, called
Jesus, led on the battle, Moses was praying to God, having his arms ex
tended in the form of a cross. As long as he remained in that posture,
Amalek was beaten ; but if he ceased in any degree to preserve it, the
people were worsted, all owing to the power of the cross ; for the people
did not conquer because Moses prayed, but because the name of Jesus was
at the head of the battle, and Moses himself made the figure of the cross."
(Dial. Tryph., p. 248, Ed. Sylburg.)
Now, it is surely no small proof of the Divine character of the New Tes
tament writings, that they stand entirely clear from such strained and
puerile interpretations, notwithstanding that they were the production of
the very age and people peculiarly addicted to such things. Though Jesus
of Nazareth, from the circumstances of His early life, could not have en
joyed more than the commonest advantages, He yet came forth as a public
teacher nobly superior to the false spirit of the times ; never seeking for the
frivolous or the fanciful, but penetrating with the profoundest discernment
into the real import of the Divine testimony. And even the Apostle Paul,
though brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, whose name is still held in vene
ration in the schools of Rabbinical learning, betrays nothing of the sinister
bias in this respect, which his early training must have tended to impart.
ran upon his head." These, indeed, are among the simpler specimens; for, by giving
a numerical value to the letters, the most extravagant and senseless opinions were
thus obtained. The fact, however, is of importance, as it provides a sufficient
answer to the mode of interpretation adopted by many modern expositors, who think
it enough, to justify the Evangelists in putting what they regard as a false meaning
upon words of prophecy, to say that the Jewish writers were in the habit of applying
Scripture in the same way applying it in a sense different from its original import.
It is forgoten in this case that the Jewish writers actually believed Scripture to have
many senses, and that when they speak of its being fulfilled, they ineant that the
words really had the sense they ascribe to them.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NK\V. 427
He writes as one well skilled, indeed, to reason and dispute, but still always
as one thoroughly versant in the real meaning of Scripture, and incapable
of stooping to anything trifling and fantastical. And that there should
thus have been, in persons so circumstanced, along with a frequent handling
of Old Testament Scripture, a perfectly sober and intelligent use of it, a
spirit of interpretation pervading and directing that use, which can stand
even the searching investigations of the nineteenth century, cannot fail to
raise the question in candid and thoughtful minds, "Whence had these
men this wisdom?" It is alone fitted to impress us with the conviction,
that they were men specially taught by God, and that the inspiration of the
Almighty gave them understanding.
We have stated, however, that though there are no real departures in
the writings of the New Testament from a sound and judicious explanation
of the historical and didactic parts of the Old, there are a few apparent ones
a few that may seem to be such on a superficial consideration. One
passage, and only one, in our Lord s history, belongs to this class. It is
His scriptural proof of the resurrection, in reply to the shallow objection
of the Sadducees, which He drew from the declaration of God to Moses at
the bush, " I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob." It is clear from this alone, our Lord argued, that the dead are
raised ; "for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living ; for all live
unto Him." (Matt. xxii. 32 ; Luke xx. 38.) The argument was openly
stigmatized by the notorious Wolf enbuttle-f ragmen tist of the last century,
as of the Rabbinical hairsplitting kind ; and more recently, Strauss, with
some others of a kindred spirit in Germany, have both regarded it as a
" cabalistical exposition," and urged as an additional reason for so regard
ing it, that the doctrine of a future state was derived by the Jews from
other nations, and cannot be proved from the writings of the Old Testament.
Most worthy successors truly to those Sadducean objectors whom our Lord
sought to confute equally shallow in their notions of God, and equally
at fault in their reading of His written word ! So far from deriving the
notion of a future state, in the particular aspect of it now under considera
tion, a resurrection from the dead, from the heathen nations around
them, the Jews were the only people in antiquity who held it ; the Gentile
philosophy in all its branches rejected it as incredible. And the construc
tion put by our Lord on the words spoken to Moses, so far from being
cabalistical or hairsplitting, simply penetrates to the fundamental principles
involved in the relation they indicate between God and His servants. " The
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob "theirs in the full and proper
sense, to be to them, and to do for them, whatever such a Being, standing
in such a relation, could be and do ; therefore, most assuredly, to raise them
from the dead, since, if one part of their natures were to be left there the
prey of corruption, He might justly be ashamed to be called their God.
(Heb. xi. 16.) " How could God," Neander properly asks, "place Himself
in so near a relation to individual men, and ascribe to them so high a dignity,
if they were mere perishable appearances, if they had not an essence akin to
His own, and destined for immortality ? The living God can only be con-
428 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
ceived of as the God of the living." l Yes, the whole law, in a sense, bore
witness to that ; for there death constantly appears as the embodiment of
foulness and corruption, with which the pure and holy One cannot dwell in
union. So that for those who are really His, He must manifest Himself as
the conqueror of death ; their relation to Him, as His peculiar people, is a
nonentity, if it does not carry this in its train. How profound, then, yet
how simple and how true, is the insight which our Lord here discovers into
the realities of things, compared either with His ancient adversaries or His
modern assailants ! And how little does His argument need such diluted
explanations to recommend it as those of Kuinoel, " God is called the God
of any one, in so far as He endows them with benefits ; but He cannot be
stow benefits upon the dead, therefore they live ! "
A passage that has much more commonly been regarded by commen
tators as breathing the dialectics of the Jewish schools, is Gal. iv. 21-31,
where the Apostle, in arguing against the legal and fleshly tendencies of the
Galatians, summons them to " hear the law." And then he calls to their
remembrance the circumstances recorded of the two wives of Abraham and
their offspring ; the one Sarah, the free woman, the mother of the children
of promise, or the spiritual seed, corresponding to the heavenly Jerusalem
and its true worshippers ; the other, Hagar, the bond woman, the mother of
a seed born after the flesh, carnal and ungodly in spirit, and so correspond
ing to the earthly Jerusalem, or Sinai, with its covenant of law, and its
slavish carnal worshippers. And the Apostle declares it as certain, that
worshippers of this class must all be cast out from any inheritance in the
kingdom of God, even as Hagar and her fleshly son were, by Divine com
mand, driven out of Abraham s house, that the true child of promise might
dwell in peace, and inherit the blessing. It is true, the Apostle himself calls
this an allegorizing of the history, which is quite enough with some to stamp
it as fanciful and weak. And there are others, looking merely to the super
ficial appearances, who allege that the exposition fails, since the child of
Hagar had nothing to do with the law, while it was precisely the posterity
of Sarah, by the line of Isaac, who stood bound by its requirements. This
is an objection that could be urged only by those who did not perceive the
real drift of the Apostle s statement. We shall have occasion to unfold this
in a subsequent part of our inquiry, when we come to speak of what the law
could not do. Meanwhile, we affirm that the Apostle s comment proceeds on
the sound principle, that the things which took place in Abraham s house
in regard to a seed of promise and blessing were all ordered specially and
peculiarly to exhibit at the very outset the truth, that such a seed must be
begotten from above, and that all not thus begotten, though encompassed,
it might be, with the solemnities and privileges of the covenant, were born
after the flesh Ishmaelites in spirit, and strangers to the promise. The
Apostle merely reads out the spiritual lessons that lay enfolded in the history
of Abraham s family as significant of things to come ; and to say that the
similitude fails, because the law was given to the posterity of Sarah and not
of Hagar, betrays an utter misapprehension, of what the real design of the
1 Life of Jesus, 248.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW. 429
law was, and what should have been expected from it. The interpretation
of the Apostle brings out the fundamental principles involved in the transac
tions, nnd it does no more.
Those who would fasten on the Apostle the charge of resorting to Rab-
binical arbitrariness and conceit, point with considerable confidence to a
passage in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. The passage is 1 Cor. x.
1-4, where the Apostle reminds the Corinthians how their fathers had been
under the cloud, and had passed through the sea ; and had been baptized
into Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and had all eaten the same spiritual
food, and all drunk of the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that
spiritual Rock which followed them, and that Rock was Christ. In this
latter part of the description, it has been alleged (latterly by De Wette,
Ruckert, Meyer) that the Apostle adopts the Jewish legends respecting the
rock at Horeb having actually followed the Israelites in their wanderings,
and puts a feigned allegorical construction on the other parts to suit his
purpose. The passage will naturally present itself for explanation when
we come to the period in Israel s history to which it refers. l At present it
is enough to say, that we have merely to take the Apostle s statements in
their proper connection, and make due allowance for the figurative use of
language. He is representing the position of the Israelites in the desert as
substantially one with that of the Corinthians. And, to make it more
manifest, he even applies the terms fitted to express the condition of the
Corinthians to the case of the Israelites : These, says he, were baptized
like you, had Christ among them like you, and like you were privileged to
eat and drink as guests in the Lord s house. Of course, language trans
ferred thus from one part of God s dispensations to another, could never be
meant to be taken very strictly ; no more could it be so, when the new
things of the Christian dispensation were applied to the Israelites, than
when the old things of the Jewish are applied to the members of the Chris
tian Church. In this latter mode of application, the Christian Church is
spoken of as having a temple as Israel had, an altar, a passover-lamb and
feast, a sprinkling with blood, a circumcision. Yet every one knows that
what is meant by such language is, not that the very things themselves,
the things in their outward form and appearance, but that the inward
realities signified by them, belong to the Church of Christ. The old nanu i
is retained, though actually denoting something higher and better. And
we must interpret in the same way when the transference is made in the
reverse order when the new things of the Christian Church are ascribed
to the ancient Israelites. By the cloud passing over and resting between
them and the Egyptians, and afterwards by their passing under its protec
tion through the Red Sea in safety, they were baptized into Moses : for
thus the line of demarcation was drawn between their old vassalage and
the new state and prospects on which, under Moses, they had entered ; and
Christ Himself, whose servant Moses was, was present with them, feeding
them as from His own hands with direct supplies of meat and drink, till
they reached the promised inheritance. In short, these were to them
See vol. ii., Ch. L, 4.
430
THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
relatively what Christian baptism and the Lord s Supper are to believers
now. But not in themselves formally the same. Christ was there only in
a mystery ; Gospel ordinances were possessed only under the shadow of
means and provisions, adapted immediately to their bodily wants and
temporal condition. Yet still Christ and the Gospel were there ; for all
that was then given and done linked itself by a spiritual bond with the
better things to come, and as in a glass darkly reflected the benefits of
redemption. So that, as the Israelites in the desert stood relatively in the
same position with the professing Church under the Gospel, the language
here used by the Apostle merely shows how clearly he perceived the points
of resemblance, and how profoundly he looked into the connection between
them.
II. PROPHECIES REFEPvRED TO BY CHRIST.
We no sooner open the evangelical narratives of New Testament Scrip
ture, than we meet with references and appeals to the prophecies of the Old.
The leading personages and transactions of Gospel times are constantly
presented to our view as those that had been foreseen and described by
ancient seers ; and at every important turn in the evolution of affairs, we
find particular passages of prophecy quoted as receiving their fulfilment in
what was taking place. But we soon perceive that the connection between
the predictions referred to and their alleged fulfilment, is by no means
always of the same kind. It appears sometimes as more natural and
obvious in its nature, and sometimes as more mystical and recondite. The
latter, of course, in an inquiry like the present, are such as more especially
call for consideration and remark ; but the others are not on that account
to be passed over in silence : for they are so far at least of importance,
that they show what class of predictions, in the estimation of our Lord and
His apostles, most obviously point to the affairs of the Messiah s kingdom,
and afford also an opportunity of marking how the transition began to be
made to a further and freer application of Old Testament prophecy.
In this line of inquiry, however, it will not do to take up the references
to the prophets precisely as they occur in the Gospels ; for the evangelists
did not write their narratives of our Lord s personal history till a consider
able time after the events that compose it had taken place not till the
deeper as well as the more obvious things connected with it had become
known to them ; and not a few of the prophetical references found in their
narratives were only understood by themselves at a period much later than
that at which the events occurred. It is in Christ s own teaching, com
municated as the events were actually in progress, that we may expect to
find the most simple and direct applications of prophecy, and the key to
the entire use of it subsequently made by His apostles. For the present,
therefore, we shall throw ourselves back upon the transactions of the
Gospel age, and with our eye upon Him who was at once the centre and
the prime agent of the whole, we shall note the manner in which He reads
to those around Him the prophecies that bore on Himself and His times.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NKW.
We shall take them, not in the historical order they occupy in the narra
tives of the evangelists, but in the antecedent order which belonged to
them, as quoted in the public ministry of Christ. We shall thus see how
He led those around Plim, step by step, to a right understanding of the
prophecies in their evangelical import.
Not far from the commencement of our Lord s public ministry, and on the
occasion, as it would seem, of His first public appearance in the synagogue
of Nazareth, He opened the book of the prophet Isaiah that had been put
into His hands, and read from chap. Ixi. the following words : lk The Spirit
of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel
to the poor : He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver
ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And
He closed the book," it is added by the Evangelist, " and began to say unto
them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." The passage thus
quoted, and so emphatically applied by Jesus to Himself, is one of those in
the later portion of Isaiah s writings (comprehending also chap, xlii., xlix.,
liii.) which evidently treat of one grand theme, " the Lord s servant,"
His " elect" one, Him u in whom His soul delighted ;" unfolding what this
wonderful and mysterious personage was to be, to do, and to suffer for the
redemption of the Lord s people, and the vindication of His cause in the
earth. It is matter of certainty that, in the judgment of the ancient Jew
ish Church, the person spoken of in all these passages was the Messiah ; 1 so
that, in applying to Himself that particular passage in Isaiah, Jesus not only
advanced the claim, but He must have been perfectly understood by those
present to advance the claim, to be the Messiah of the Jewish prophets.
The modern Jews, and a considerable number also of Christian expositors
(chiefly on the Continent), have endeavoured to prove that the immediate
and proper reference in this, and the other passages in Isaiah connected
with it, is to the Jewish nation as a whole, or to the prophetical class in
particular. But these attempts have signally failed. It stands fast, as the
result of the most careful and searching criticism, that the words of the
prophet can only be understood of a single individual, in whom far higher
than human powers were to develop themselves, and who was to do, as well
for Israel as for the world at large, what Israel had been found utterly in
competent, even in the lighter departments of the work, to accomplish. In
a wor.1, they can be understood only of the promised Messiah. And of all
that had been spoken concerning Him by the prophet Isaiah, there is not a
passage to be found that could more fitly have been appropriated by Jesus
than the one He read at that opening stage of His career ; as it describes
Him in respect to the whole reach and compass of His Divine commission,
with all its restorative energies and beneficent results. We see as well the
wisdom of the selection as the justness of the application. It is also to be
noted, that the appropriation by our Lord of the passage in this sixty-first
1 See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. on Matt. xii. 20, and John v. 19 ; Schottgen de Mcssia.
pp. 113, 192; Hengstenberg s Chribtology 011 Isa. xlii. 1-9, xlix., liii. 2. Al^o Alex
ander on the same passages, and Ixi.
432 THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE.
chapter of Isaiah, gives the virtual sanction of His authority to the appli
cations elsewhere made of other passages in the same prophetical discourse
to Gospel times such as Matt. xii. 18-21 ; Acts viii. 32-35, xiii. 47 ;
Rom. x. 21 ; 1 Pet. ii. 23-25, where portions of Isa. xlii., xlix., liii., are so
applied.
The next open and public appeal made by our L